Blogodak - srpski blogovi na jednom mestu

Crna Gora i Makedonija priznale otcepljenu srpsku pokrajinu kao nezavisnu državu.

To priznanje desilo se samo dan pošto je Generalna skupština Ujedinjenih nacija odlučila da se pred Međunarodnim sudom pravde razmatra legalnost jednostranog proglašenja nezavisnosti Kosova. Posle odluke Podgorice i Skoplja, Vlada Srbije oštro je reagovala i uskratila gostoprimstvo crnogorskom ambasadoru. Nakon što su Crna Gora i Makedonija priznale nezavisno Kosovo, broj zemalja koje su priznale otcepljenje srpske pokrajine popeo se na 50. Od zemalja bivše Jugoslavije, Kosovo su prvo priznale Slovenija, a potom i Hrvatska.
Bosna i Hercegovina je saopštila da neće za sada priznati Kosovo, a parlament Republike Srpske je usvojio rezoluciju kojom se odbacuje jednostrano proglašena nezavisnost Kosova

Zvanična Makedonija i zvanična Crna Gora tvrde da njihova odluka o priznanju nezavisnosti Kosova nije uperena protiv Srbije (?!) Ovakva odluka Vlada ovih dveju država govori o njihovoj (ne)zavisnosti tj. (ne)zavisnosti njihove zvanične politike. Očigledno je da je ovaj šamar Srbiji i to dan nakon "pobede" srpske diplomatije u UN, zviznut iz Vašingtona i zbog toga nema potrebe analizirati dublje ovaj potez naših najbližih suseda. Posebno ne treba kriviti narod, jer je većina stanovništva ovih Republika, listom protiv priznanja piratske države Kosovo. Nije preterano reći da je ovaj čin bratske nam Crne Gore, najsramniji u njenoj svetloj istoriji i neka im služi na čast. Diktat iz Vašingona (a potom Brisela) je odgovor srpskoj inicijativi da se problem prebaci na pravni kolosek i odgovor na pitanje koliko je njima stalo do međunarodnog prava i pravde.

Sada se kreteni na srpskoj političkoj sceni utrkuju u retardiranim izjavama i pale narod a suština je da se narod ne pita, ni tamo ni ovde...

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"Control oil and you control nations; control food and you control the people." Henry Kissinger



The key word in understanding the most serious economic crisis in modern history, is global economic restructuring. Humanity is undergoing in the post-Cold War era an economic and social crisis of unprecedented scale leading to the rapid impoverishment of large sectors of the World population. National economies are collapsing, unemployment is rampant. Local level famines have erupted in Sub-Saharan Africa, South Asia and parts of Latin America. New World order, wants to get world population down to a billion people world wide. Starvation is the perfect answer.

The seismic events which have seen the near-destruction of the investment banking sector and the collapse of insurance giant AIG are on the scale of the Great Crash of 1929. It created conditions for the emergence of fascism in continental Europe and then World War II.

Food prices in Haiti had risen on average by 40 percent in less than a year, with the cost of staples such as rice doubling.... In Bangladesh, [in late April 2008] some 20,000 textile workers took to the streets to denounce soaring food prices and demand higher wages. The price of rice in the country has doubled over the past year, threatening the workers, who earn a monthly salary of just $25, with hunger. In Egypt, protests by workers over food prices rocked the textile center of Mahalla al-Kobra, north of Cairo, for two days last week, with two people shot dead by security forces. Hundreds were arrested, and the government sent plainclothes police into the factories to force workers to work. Food prices in Egypt have risen by 40 percent in the past year... Earlier this month, in the Ivory Coast, thousands marched on the home of President Laurent Gbagbo, chanting “we are hungry” and “life is too expensive, you are going to kill us.

We can expect a sharp increase in personal bankruptcies. Yet the numbers will not peak until this time next year at the earliest. Hundreds of thousands of people will lose their jobs, with many forced to sell their houses. Property prices will slump. There will be extreme human suffering, panic and despair. Many careers will be destroyed. This is considerably worse than the downturn of the early 1990s. The crisis, however, has by no means reached its climax. It could potentially disrupt the very foundations of the international monetary system. The repercussions on people's lives in America and around the world are dramatic.
The crisis is not limited to the meltdown of financial markets, the real economy at the national and international levels, its institutions, its productive structures are also in jeopardy.
As stock values collapse, lifelong household savings are eroded, not to mention pension funds.
The financial meltdown inevitably backlashes on consumer markets, the housing market, and more broadly on the process of investment in the production of goods and services. The global financial crisis is intimately related to the war.

"War is Good for Business" The war is profit driven, financed through the massive Worldwide expansion of dollar denominated debt. War and Globalization go hand in hand. Wall Street, the oil companies and the defense contractors have concurrent and overlapping interests. The oil companies are behind the speculative surge in crude oil prices on the London energy market.
A stock market meltdown can be highly profitable operation. With foreknowledge and inside information, a collapse in market values constitutes (through short-selling) a lucrative and money-spinning opportunity, for a select category of powerful speculators who have the ability to manipulate the market in the appropriate direction at the appropriate time. There are indications of a carefully engineered conspiracy to trigger the collapse of several major financial institutions through outright manipulation. "Short selling" as well as the spreading of false rumors were used as a strategy to trigger the collapse of selected stocks on Wall Street including Lehman, Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs. "Short sellers aim to profit from share declines, usually by borrowing a stock, selling it and buying it back after its price has decreased. In abusive “naked” short selling, the seller does not borrow the stock and fails to deliver it to the buyer.
Some market participants say abusive short sellers have contributed to the fall of companies such as Lehman Brothers by forcing down share prices. The current financial meltdown has nothing to do with market forces: it is characterized by financial warfare between competing institutional speculators. Leveraged speculative trade has pushed the price of crude oil to exceedingly high levels, reaching a peak in July 2008. A turning point was reached and the direction of speculative trade was rapidly reversed, leading to a dramatic plunge in prices of crude oil. Those financial institutions and/or investors who have the ability to manipulate the movement of crude oil prices, and had prior knowledge and the ability to determine the timeline of the speculative surge and subsequent collapse, were able to reap large money profits both during the upward and downward movement of the price of crude oil. This economic crisis is the outcome of a process of macroeconomic and financial restructuring initiated in the early 1980s. It is the result of a policy framework: trade and financial sector reforms under WTO auspices not to mention the imposition of the IMF deadly macroeconomic reforms, commonly referred to as the structural adjustment program. It is accompanied by the concurrent impoverishment of large sectors of the world population. In the years prior to the inauguration of the Bush administration, a process of intense financial rivalry had unfolded. The New World Order largely under the dominion of American finance capital was intent on dwarfing rival banking conglomerates in Western Europe and Japan as well as sealing strategic alliances with a "select club" of German and British banking giants. Effective control over the entire US financial services industry had been transferred to a handful of financial conglomerates. The financial meltdown on Wall Street largely benefits Bank of America and JP Morgan Chase, which is part of the Rockefeller empire.


Revelation 13:16-18 And he causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads: And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name. Here is wisdom. Let him that hath understanding count the number of the beast: for it is the number of a man; and his number is Six hundred threescore and six.


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U.S. President George W. Bush upset some delegates by failing to mention “climate change” or “global warming” in his final speech to the United Nations — in which he referred to terrorism 32 times.

"...the ideals of the Charter are now facing a challenge as serious as any since the U.N.'s founding -- a global movement of violent extremists. By deliberately murdering the innocent to advance their aims, these extremists defy the fundamental principles of international order. They show contempt for all who respect life and value human dignity. They reject the words of the Bible, the Koran, the Torah, or any standard of conscience or morality." ( Bush describing his presidency )

"...To be successful, we must be focused and resolute and effective. Instead of only passing resolutions decrying terrorist attacks after they occur, we must cooperate more closely to keep terrorist attacks from happening in the first place. Instead of treating all forms of government as equally tolerable, we must actively challenge the conditions of tyranny and despair that allow terror and extremism to thrive." ( Bush preparing the world for U.S. agression on Iran and N.Korea )

"...Over the past seven years, Afghanistan and Iraq have been transformed from regimes that actively sponsor terror to democracies that fight terror. Libya has renounced its support for terror and its pursuit of nuclear weapons. Nations like Saudi Arabia and Pakistan are actively pursuing the terrorists. A few nations -- regimes like Syria and Iran -- continue to sponsor terror. Yet their numbers are growing fewer, and they're growing more isolated from the world." ( Afghanistan and Iraq are now democracies that grow flowers unlike Iran and Syria that grow terror-ism :P )

"For all these reasons, the nations of this body must challenge tyranny as vigorously as we challenge terror. Some question whether people in certain parts of the world actually desire freedom. This self-serving condescension has been disproved before our eyes. From the voting booths of Afghanistan, Iraq, and Liberia, to the Orange Revolution in Ukraine and the Rose Revolution in Georgia, to the Cedar Revolution in Lebanon and the Tulip Revolution in Kyrgyzstan, we have seen people consistently make the courageous decision to demand their liberty. For all the suggestions to the contrary, the truth is that whenever or wherever people are given the choice, they choose freedom." ( Iraq and Afghanistan chose freedom and liberty and that is why NATO has occupied their land. Georgia too, chose liberty... and freedom, by murdering their citizens. Ossetians had no desire for freedom... because they are Russians... Choose freedom, choose life and NATO will come to you )

"In Afghanistan, a determined people are working to overcome decades of tyranny, and protect their newly-free society. They have strong support from all 26 nations of the NATO Alliance. I appreciate the United Nations' decision this week to renew the mandate for the International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan..." ( no comment )

"In Iraq, the fight has been difficult, yet daily life has improved dramatically over the past 20 months -- thanks to the courage of the Iraqi people, a determined coalition of nations, and a surge of American troops." ( no comment )

"We must stand united in our support of other young democracies, from the people of Lebanon struggling to maintain their hard-won independence, to the people of the Palestinian Territories, who deserve a free and peaceful state of their own. We must stand united in our support of the people of Georgia. The United Nations Charter sets forth the "equal rights of nations large and small." Russia's invasion of Georgia was a violation of those words. Young democracies around the world are watching to see how we respond to this test. The United States has worked with allies in multilateral institutions like the European Union and NATO to uphold Georgia's territorial integrity and provide humanitarian relief. And our nations will continue to support Georgia's democracy. " ( What about Ossetians and their rights? Georgia's territorial integrity? What about Serbia's territorial integrity? )

"The United Nations is an organization of extraordinary potential. As the United Nations rebuilds its headquarters, it must also open the door to a new age of transparency, accountability, and seriousness of purpose.
With determination and clear purpose, the United Nations can be a powerful force for good as we head into the 21st century. It can affirm the great promise of its founding." ( Bush talks about NWO and globalisation )

The objectives I've laid out for multilateral institutions -- confronting terror, opposing tyranny, and promoting effective development -- are difficult, but they are necessary tasks.

dictionary:

spreading peace and love - bombing the shit out of you
young democracies - puppet governments
newly free societies - occupied territories
freedom - U.S. occupation
new age of transparency - new world order
confronting terror - attacking sovereign states
opposing tyranny - crushing down remaining regimes that oppose nwo
promoting effective development - using other nation's resources


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Leaders in the European Union are considering imposing sanctions against Russia, Bernard Kouchner, the French foreign minister, has said. (?!)
"Apart from that my friend Kouchner also said that we will soon attack Moldova and Ukraine and the Crimea ... But that is a sick imagination and probably that applies to sanctions as well," Sergei Lavrov, the Russian foreign minister told reporters in the Tajik capital.
"I think it is a demonstration of complete confusion," he said.
The warning was made "just because they're upset that the 'little pet' of certain Western capitals didn't fulfill their expectations," Lavrov said, referring to Georgia.

EU sanctions on Russia? How? EU risking the cut in energy supply from Russia during winter? I don't think so... EU must realize that US treats them as an enemy, not an ally. Where was EU when US invaded Sovereign nation of Iraq and Afghanistan? Forget that, where is EU when Isreal still occupies Palestine land? Why doesn't the EU impose sanctions on Isreal or US? Unproportional use of force?! Hello, what about NATO bombing Serbia?! It's the same shit, backthen Serbia was a bad guy and NATO the liberation force, now Georgians are the victims and Russia the agressor... where's the logic in those claims? Kosovo is unique... rrright :P The real goal of this war was to make Russians look bad (during the Olympics, ghost from the Soviet past emerges) and to put the rocket shield in Poland as an excuse. So it was about Russia all the time and not Iran. Anyone who can read a map knows that Europe has to be defended from Iranian nukes (which btw don't exist) in Turkey...

Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin has accused the United States of orchestrating the conflict in Georgia to benefit one of its presidential election candidates. Abkhazia and South Ossetia have been seeking independence since the early 1990s, resulting in bloody conflicts with Georgia, and that their hopes were given a new lease of life following Kosovo's unilateral declaration of independence from Serbia in February and subsequent recognition by most EU and western countries, including the U.S. How different is the case of Georgian breakaway regions from Kosovo? "In both cases the center started a war in Kosovo and South Ossetia, as well as Abkhazia, but the conflicts were halted in different ways - through the ruthless inhuman bombardment of Belgrade in the case of Kosovo and without punishing Tbilisi for its attacks on Sukhumi [Abkhazia's capital]," Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said. "A ceasefire was agreed, peacekeepers were deployed and mechanisms for talks established. Belgrade has never tried to use military force or cast doubt on negotiations since 1999, but they were destroyed by Kosovo Albanians supported by the West. And it was Tbilisi that undermined the settlement mechanisms in South Ossetia and Abkhazia," Kosovo precedent had influenced Russia's decision to recognize independence of South Ossetia and Abkhazia.

The biggest casualty of the showdown has been the West's naive belief that Georgia provides a secure alternative energy corridor that avoids either Russia or charter ‘axis of evil’ member Iran.” Over the last decade, Western companies have pumped $5 billion into developing the Batumi, Poti and Kulevi Black Sea ports, along with the Baku-Supsa oil pipeline and the BTE. However, the real crown jewel of Western investment success has been the 1,760-kilometer, 1 million barrel a day BTC pipeline. Within days of military action commencing, all oil pipelines and seaport terminal export facilities closed in Georgia. The second victim is Georgian people who trusted their naive idiot puppet president. And the biggest idiot of all is offcourse a dumbass from the Whore House who has 6 months left to destroy Iran, North Korea and the planet...Subscribe in a reader

Why I had to recognise Georgia’s breakaway regions
By Dmitry Medvedev

Published by FT: August 26 2008 18:48 Last updated: August 26 2008 18:48

On Tuesday Russia recognised the independence of the territories of South Ossetia and Abkhazia. It was not a step taken lightly, or without full consideration of the consequences. But all possible outcomes had to be weighed against a sober understanding of the situation – the histories of the Abkhaz and Ossetian peoples, their freely expressed desire for independence, the tragic events of the past weeks and inter­national precedents for such a move.
Not all of the world’s nations have their own statehood. Many exist happily within boundaries shared with other nations. The Russian Federation is an example of largely harmonious coexistence by many dozens of nations and nationalities. But some nations find it impossible to live under the tutelage of another. Relations between nations living “under one roof” need to be handled with the utmost sensitivity.
After the collapse of communism, Russia reconciled itself to the “loss” of 14 former Soviet republics, which became states in their own right, even though some 25m Russians were left stranded in countries no longer their own. Some of those nations were un­able to treat their own minorities with the respect they deserved. Georgia immediately stripped its “autonomous regions” of Abkhazia and South Ossetia of their autonomy.
Can you imagine what it was like for the Abkhaz people to have their university in Sukhumi closed down by the Tbilisi government on the grounds that they allegedly had no proper language or history or culture and so did not need a university? The newly independent Georgia inflicted a vicious war on its minority nations, displacing thousands of people and sowing seeds of discontent that could only grow. These were tinderboxes, right on Russia’s doorstep, which Russian peacekeepers strove to keep from igniting.
But the west, ignoring the delicacy of the situation, unwittingly (or wittingly) fed the hopes of the South Ossetians and Abkhazians for freedom. They clasped to their bosom a Georgian president, Mikheil Saakashvili, whose first move was to crush the autonomy of another region, Adjaria, and made no secret of his intention to squash the Ossetians and Abkhazians.
Meanwhile, ignoring Russia's warnings, western countries rushed to recognise Kosovo’s illegal declaration of independence from Serbia. We argued consistently that it would be impossible, after that, to tell the Abkhazians and Ossetians (and dozens of other groups around the world) that what was good for the Kosovo Albanians was not good for them. In international relations, you cannot have one rule for some and another rule for others.
Seeing the warning signs, we persistently tried to persuade the Georgians to sign an agreement on the non-use of force with the Ossetians and Abkhazians. Mr Saakashvili refused. On the night of August 7-8 we found out why.
Only a madman could have taken such a gamble. Did he believe Russia would stand idly by as he launched an all-out assault on the sleeping city of Tskhinvali, murdering hundreds of peaceful civilians, most of them Russian citizens? Did he believe Russia would stand by as his “peacekeeping” troops fired on Russian comrades with whom they were supposed to be preventing trouble in South Ossetia?
Russia had no option but to crush the attack to save lives. This was not a war of our choice. We have no designs on Georgian territory. Our troops entered Georgia to destroy bases from which the attack was launched and then left. We restored the peace but could not calm the fears and aspirations of the South Ossetian and Abkhazian peoples – not when Mr Saakashvili continued (with the complicity and encouragement of the US and some other Nato members) to talk of rearming his forces and reclaiming “Georgian territory”. The presidents of the two republics appealed to Russia to recognise their independence.
A heavy decision weighed on my shoulders. Taking into account the freely expressed views of the Ossetian and Abkhazian peoples, and based on the principles of the United Nations charter and other documents of international law, I signed a decree on the Russian Federation’s recognition of the independence of South Ossetia and Abkhazia. I sincerely hope that the Georgian people, to whom we feel historic friendship and sympathy, will one day have leaders they deserve, who care about their country and who develop mutually respectful relations with all the peoples in the Caucasus. Russia is ready to support the achievement of such a goal.

The writer is president of the Russian FederationSubscribe in a reader

Piromani!

U naselju Komoševina, iznad Budve, juče oko 15.30 časova izbio je požar koji se proširio na brdo Spas. Sat vremena posle izbijanja požara na brdu Spas, izbio je požar i na brdu Ostrog, iznad naselja Maini, na suprotnom delu grada. Gradonačelnik Budve Rajko Kuljača izrazio je sumnju da je reč o podmetnutim požarima. Veliki požari koji su izbili tokom popodneva na nepristupačnim delovima brda Spas i Ostrog iznad Budve zahvatili su više od deset hektara rastinja... ( B92 )

Ubistva!

BUDVA - Turista iz Holandije snimio je u ponedeljak kamerom ubistvo Gorana Pejovića (29) iz Nikšića, kome je nepoznati napadač prišao s leđa i ispalio nekoliko hitaca u potiljak. Mladi Nikšićanin postao je šesta žrtva u budvanskom trouglu hotela "Avala" i "Mogren", i kafea "Palma".- Ovo ti je pozdrav iz Beograda! - poručio je čovek sa sedom bradom i slamnatim šeširom na glavi, pre nego što je u Pejovića ispalio hice kalibra 9 milimetara.Doduše, neki očevici su u policiji potvrdili da je čovek koji se dao u beg posle hitaca koje je ispalio u Pejovića i njegovog prijatelja Vojkana Inića (27) iz Novog Sada, poruku izgovorio na ruskom jeziku! Hici koji su odjeknuli nešto pre 19 časova u popularnom kafeu, čiji je navodno vlasnik Miloš Marović, sin Svetozara Marovića potpredsednika DPS, nisu bili namenjeni Pejoviću. Meta je navodno bio jedan Budvanin, čije ime se poslednjih nekoliko godina vezivalo za spektakularne pucnjave na crnogorskom primorju, ali i van Crne Gore. Ima onih koji tvrde da se on u kobno vreme nalazio u blizini stola za kojim je sedeo Pejović... (ceo tekst)

Raditi (Živeti) u Budvi...

Ne mogu reći da mi je bio san da živim na moru ali sam sigurno nekada maštao o tome... Sada, kada mi se ta prilika ukazala i prvi utisci slegli, rešio sam da napišem i nešto o svom iskustvu.
Ova priča je prvenstveno namenjena mojim kolegama (arhitektama... i ostalim gradj. inž.) koji nezadovoljni karijerom po unutrašnjosti Srbije žele nešto da promene a čuli su za građevinski boom u Crnoj Gori, naročito u Budvi.

Bu2 je fenomen... koji ja još uvek ne shvatam u potpunosti. Gradić ima probleme sa vodosnabdevanjem, strujom, kulturom... plaže su neugledne, voda zagađena, cene smeštaja nerealne, noćni život... to je posebna priča. Stari Grad je biser u moru neukusa i kiča i naravno, ono čega se sećate kada se vratite sa letovanja... Starog grada i novih jahti parkiranih ispod zidina... i stvarno lepih cura sa najdužim preplanulim nogama na svetu ;) eto, rekao sam i nešto pozitivno. Bu2, stvarno nije divno mesto za odmor ali je "Meka i Medina" za turbo generaciju 90-ih (moja prva asocijacija, pre su bili gradovi Sodoma i Gomora). Ono šta me je nerviralo je cena privatnog smeštaja koju diktira lokalno stanovništvo i ponuda za tu cenu, po sistemu uzmi ili ostavi. Kažu da im je "ova sezona pukla", a kako i ne bi kada ovde nije cilj da im gosti dođu i sledeće godine već da im se izvrnu džepovi. Znači, nije važno da li nude šupu sa pogledom na zid ili vidikovac na kraju šume, cena je tu negde... a za te pare npr. možete iznajmiti jednosoban stan u Dubai-ju (bez preterivanja). Nikako ne pijte vodu česmušu, tražite piće bez leda, ne otvarajte usta u moru... jer ćete bar nekoliko sledećih dana provesti na wc šolji...

A sad karijera...
Ja sam npr. u svom rodnom gradu radio u velikom, rekao bih pre glomaznom projektnom birou, sa mastodontom od nepotrebne i nefunkcionalne administracije, sa starom i novom gardom, sa najčudnijim ljudima u životu... O tome nekom drugom prilikom, otišao sam jer je moj rad iskorišćavan za male pare bez ikakve perspektive i napretka i zbog nepravde i zato što su svi od kojih sam učio, otišli... Ali to je sve sada nebitno. Budva: Došao sam u projektni biro kakav sam zamišljao, zamišljao da postoji negde... u NY npr. Mogu reći da sam u čudu kakvu sam sreću imao jer ostali i nisu tako sjajni. Prva stvar, koja je bila za mene od velikog značaja, bila je to što sada projektujem ili učestvujem u projektovanju npr vila na moru! npr hotela, npr malo arhitekture za promenu. Druga stvar, ljudi su normalni! (ali to je opet moje loše iskustvo). Osećam da sam nakon kratkog perioda stagnacije ponovo pokrenut. Otvaraju se novi horizonti, učim i radim ponovo. Naravno tu je i novac. Srećom, bez obzira na onu moju priču o Sodomi i Gomori, investitori ne prestaju da dolaze. Poreklo investitora i novca, nas kao profesionalce ne interesuje. Budva je mesto gde se trenutno gradi i gde će se graditi još neko vreme a samim tim je i potražnja za stručnim kadrom velika. Ovo nije moj poziv da dođete, naravno nije nigde sve baš super. Ne znam ni što sam ovo pisao... a o tome šta se gradi u Budvi biće još reči.Subscribe in a reader

US to Russia: stop 'dangerous game'

Condoleezza Rice, the United States secretary of state, warned Moscow that it was playing a dangerous game with the US and its Nato allies.
Rice said the West was determined to prevent Russia winning a strategic victory from its conflict with Georgia. She said: "Russia is a state that is unfortunately using the one tool that it has always used ... when it wishes to deliver a message: that is its military power. We're determined to deny them their strategic objective." "Russia will pay a price," Rice said on Monday before flying to Brussels for the talks. She has arrived in Poland to sign a deal that will see a US missile defence base built on the soil of the former Soviet satellite. But the plan to site 10 US interceptor missiles by 2011-2013 at a base 180km from Russia's westernmost frontier, has infuriated Russia, which says the Poles risk attack, if the deal goes ahead. Poland has in recent years joined the EU and is a member of Nato. The US says the missile defence system is aimed at protecting it and Europe from future attacks from states such as Iran. It rejects Moscow's insistence that it is a threat to Russia. Last week, the US pulled out of a planned four-nation naval exercise with Russia in the Pacific because of Russia's actions in Georgia. Russia's navy said on Tuesday it had cancelled a September visit by a US navy frigate to a port in Russia's Far Eastern region of Kamchatka.

Jaap de Hoop Scheffer, the NATO's secretary general, said: "We cannot continue with business as usual". "It's not business as usual. They're occupying a sovereign nation," he said.

Russian warning

"Poland, by deploying [the system] is exposing itself to a strike - 100 per cent," General Anatoly Nogovitsyn was reported as saying on Friday by the Interfax news agency.
Russia has accused Nato of trying to "whitewash a criminal regime" in Tbilisi and seeking to rearm Georgia's leaders. "Nato is trying to make a victim of an aggressor and whitewash a criminal regime - save a collapsing regime - and is taking a path to the rearmament of the current leaders in Georgia," Sergei Lavrov, Russia's foreign minister, said on Tuesday.
"We hope that tomorrow's decisions by Nato will be balanced and that responsible forces in the West will give up the total cynicism that has been so evident [which] is pushing us back to the Cold War era,'' Dmitry Rogozin told reporters on Monday.
Russia has rejected a UN Security Council draft resolution demanding full compliance with the Georgia ceasefire, saying the text did not fully reflect a peace plan agreed to on Sunday.

...In other news

Afghanistan: French Nato troops have been killed in battles with Taliban fighters near Kabul. Most of the 3,000 French troops part of the 40-nation Nato-led Isaf force are in Kabul province, northeast of the capital...
Iraq: Six US sailors have been accused of abusing detainees at a prison camp in Iraq, the US navy said...Subscribe in a reader

The fighting between Russia and its small, former Soviet neighbour broke out last Thursday when Georgia sent forces to retake South Ossetia, a pro-Russian province that threw off Georgian rule in the 1990s.
Moscow responded with a counter-attack by its vastly bigger forces that drove Georgian troops out of the devastated South Ossetian capital Tskhinvali on Sunday.

U.S. president George W Bush called Russia's actions "unacceptable in the 21st century." He urged Moscow to withdraw its forces from Georgia and accept a European peace plan. Similary, senator John McCain declared, as Bush did several hours later, that "Russian actions, in clear violation of international law, have no place in 21st-century Europe." United States have all rights reserved for that kind of action (Serbia, Afghanistan, Iraq, Iran...)
Sen. Barack Obama (Ill.), the presumptive Democratic nominee, said that "no matter how this conflict started, Russia has escalated it well beyond the dispute over South Ossetia and invaded another country. . . . There is no possible justification for these attacks."
Obama called for Russia to accept the French-authored peace plan and for "the United States, Europe and all other concerned countries to stand united in condemning this aggression." While Russia should return to its pre-conflict military posture, he said, "we cannot tolerate the unacceptable status quo that led to this escalation." He supported the deployment of a "genuine international peacekeeping force" to replace previously stationed Russian peacekeepers.

While the U.S. administration yesterday recalled the days of Soviet empire, the Russians suggested that invaders and occupiers of Iraq lacked the moral authority to offer criticism. In remarks broadcast on state television, Putin, now Russia's premier, decried Western "cynicism" for defending what he said was Georgian aggression against separatist enclaves in South Ossetia and Abkhazia. "They, of course, had to hang Saddam Hussein for destroying several Shiite villages," he said of the United States. Putin said he was dismayed that the United States had used its military planes to transport Georgian 2,000-strong troop contingent home from Iraq. "The Cold War has long ended but the mentality of the cold war has stayed firmly in the minds of several U.S. diplomats. It is a real shame."

"The roots of this tragedy lie in the decision of Georgia's separatist leaders in 1991 to abolish South Ossetian autonomy. This turned out to be a time bomb for Georgia's territorial integrity." said the last president of the Soviet Union, Mikhail Gorbachev for the Washington Post. "What happened on the night of Aug. 7 is beyond comprehension. The Georgian military attacked the South Ossetian capital of Tskhinvali with multiple rocket launchers designed to devastate large areas. Russia had to respond. To accuse it of aggression against "small, defenseless Georgia" is not just hypocritical but shows a lack of humanity. ", "The Georgian leadership could do this only with the perceived support and encouragement of a much more powerful force. Georgian armed forces were trained by hundreds of U.S. instructors, and its sophisticated military equipment was bought in a number of countries. This, coupled with the promise of NATO membership, emboldened Georgian leaders into thinking that they could get away with a "blitzkrieg" in South Ossetia. ", "By declaring the Caucasus, a region that is thousands of miles from the American continent, a sphere of its "national interest," the United States made a serious blunder."

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Mikheil Saakashvili, the Georgian president, has said that most of the breakaway province of South Ossetia has been "liberated" in an overnight offensive. Georgian tanks launched an attack on Friday on Tskhinvali, the capital of South Ossetia. Simultaneously, Georgian fighter jets attacked separatist positions. Dmitry Medvedev, the Russian president, promised on Friday to defend Russian citizens in South Ossetia.
"We cannot allow the deaths of our countrymen to go unpunished. The guilty parties will receive the punishment they deserve," he said in televised remarks. Vladimir Putin, the Russian prime minister, spoke of retaliation and pledged to protect Russian citizens. Russia is the main backer of Georgian separatists in the two enclaves of South Ossetia and Abkhazia, and has a "peacekeeping force" stationed in the region. Russia's three main news agencies said a Russian military convoy had entered South Ossetia on Friday, quoting witnesses. Saakashvili said: "A full-scale aggression has been launched against Georgia [by Russia]. Georgia will not yield its territory or renounce its freedom," he said. South Ossetia declared independence from Georgia in the 1990s but Georgia has officially started a military offensive to win back the breakaway regions. Russian warplanes are also bombing targets in Georgia, according to reports from Tbilisi. The UN Security Council has still not agreed on how to react. Washington -- which sees the country as a vital regional bridgehead and as an important transit country for gas and oil -- would like to see the country join NATO and has provided political and economic support. Washington provided Georgia with development assistance and is an important investor in Georgia.
If the situation deteriorates further, Georgia will soon face a war on two fronts. Abkhazia has signed a solidarity pact with South Ossetia. Troops from Abkhazia started moving toward the Georgian border on Friday morning. Help for both provinces is on the way from volunteers streaming into the region from the northern Caucasus.Subscribe in a reader

"We found what we're looking for"
Scientists said today they have "found proof" of water ice on Mars away from the polar ice caps, a discovery made by NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander.
The finding is a crucial first step toward learning whether the ground on Mars is hospitable, because all life as we know it requires water. Now scientists can get on with the business of studying the chemistry of Mars dirt in more detail.
When the probe took photos of a ditch it had dug four days before, scientists noticed that about eight small crumbs of a bright material had disappeared. They concluded those crumbs had been water ice buried under a thin layer of dirt that vaporized when Phoenix exposed them to the air.
Phoenix's robotic arm first revealed the crumbs about 5 cm deep in the trench called "Dodo-Goldilocks" on June 15. By June 19, they had vanished. If the crumbs had been salt, they wouldn't have disappeared, scientists said, and if the ice had been made of carbon dioxide, they wouldn't have vaporized.
"What this tells us is we found what we're looking for," said Mark Lemmon, a Phoenix co-investigator from Texas A&M University. "This tells us that we've got water ice within reach of the [robotic] arms, which means that we can continue the investigation."
Finding ice on Mars isn't completely shocking, since observations from past satellites sent to orbit the planet, such as the 2001 Mars Odyssey spacecraft, have indicated that ice is likely to lie beneath the planet's surface. Still, if confirmed, this would be the first direct finding of that ice by a probe on the ground. The next questions to answer are what chemicals, minerals and organic compounds might be mixed in with the water. "The real excitement will come when they start to study the ice in detail and attempt to learn how it formed and how old it is."


Additional reporting for this article was contributed by Jeremy Hsu, SPACE.com staff writer.Subscribe in a reader