In the News: Aug-11

Israel mulls new settler enclave in West Bank - 11 Aug 2008 at 2:18pm - JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israel has proposed building a new Jewish settlement in the occupied West Bank near Jerusalem, a spokesman for the main settlers organization said on Monday.

US: big powers urge Russia to accept truce - 11 Aug 2008 at 9:53am - WASHINGTON -- The world's seven largest economic powers on Monday urged Russia to accept an immediate cease-fire with Georgia and agree to international mediation over the growing crisis in Georgia's separatist areas that is verging on all-out war.

Should Russia be any more concerned with the urgings of the international community than was the U.S. when it invaded Iraq?

Afghan, U.S. forces kill 25 Taliban, 8 civilians - 11 Aug 2008 at 9:49am - KABUL (Reuters) - Afghan and U.S.-led coalition forces killed 25 Taliban insurgents and eight civilians after an ambush in southern Afghanistan, the U.S. military said on Monday.

Is it usual for the U.S. to so quickly admit having killed civilians?

Iraq demands "very clear" U.S. troop timeline - 11 Aug 2008 at 9:24am - BAGHDAD (Reuters) - The United States must provide a "very clear timeline" to withdraw its troops from Iraq as part of an agreement allowing them to stay beyond this year, Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshiyar Zebari said on Sunday.

US disregarded experts over biolab - 11 Aug 2008 at 6:11am - WASHINGTON -- The Homeland Security Department swept aside evaluations of government experts and named Mississippi - home to powerful U.S. lawmakers with sway over the agency - as a top location for a new $451 million, national laboratory to study some of the world's most virulent biological threats, according to internal documents obtained by The Associated Press.

Thought for the day:
A state of war only serves as an excuse for domestic tyranny. -Alexander Solzhenitsyn (1918 - )