Angolan troops have joined Congolese soldiers battling rebels near the city of Goma, U.N. officials reported Friday, raising new fears the conflict will spread as African leaders struggled to find a way to stop it.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/08/2008 00:00 ||
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#1
"Hullo, you've reached Mike Hoare's number. I'm unable to get to the telephone right now....."
TBILISI, Georgia: Newly available accounts by independent military observers of the beginning of the war between Georgia and Russia this summer call into question the long-standing Georgian assertion that it was acting defensively against separatist and Russian aggression.
Instead, the accounts suggest that Georgia's inexperienced military attacked the isolated separatist capital of Tskhinvali on August 7 with indiscriminate artillery and rocket fire, exposing civilians, Russian peacekeepers and unarmed monitors to harm.
The accounts are neither fully conclusive nor broad enough to settle the many lingering disputes over blame in a war that hardened relations between the Kremlin and the West. But they raise questions about the accuracy and honesty of Georgia's insistence that its shelling of Tskhinvali, the capital of the breakaway region of South Ossetia, was a precise operation. Georgia has variously defended the shelling as necessary to stop heavy Ossetian shelling of Georgian villages, bring order to the region or counter a Russian invasion.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: john frum ||
11/08/2008 00:00 ||
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#2
It is still way to early to determine the actual events of 8/6, 8/7 and 8/8. The article itself says the OSCE was conflicted in it's initial reporting. NO independent monitors are currently(OSCE, EU monitors, etc.) allowed inside South Ossetia unless they come through the Russian side with Moscow's blessing. What does appear obvious is Georgia may be getting sold down the river in order for Europe to mend its respective members Russian relations. This is clear in the recent diplomatic shift (last 2 weeks) by WESTERN european nations in their stance towards Russia, most notably Britian who has been in a tiff with Russia for a year plus. And surprise, surprise the main quoted source for the OSCE is a former British army captain. I smell something, and it ain't flowers.
#4
The fact that Soviet Russian units and supplies had been deployed a month ahead of time and the Chechan militia had been redeployed to S. Ossetia is, of course, just a coincidence.
Posted by: Frozen Al ||
11/08/2008 13:20 Comments ||
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#6
Observers are often not really positioned to know what happened in the big picture. Who shot first disappears behind I saw them shoot.
This doesn't really decide much in my mind. Putin acted like a savage before and after so I will assume the savage started it until there is some really decent evidence to refute that.
BRUSSELS- The European Commission urged Lithuania and Poland to drop objections to restarting talks on closer ties with Russia on Friday, saying the bloc had to speak with a single voice in negotiations with Moscow.
French President Nicolas Sarkozy, holder of the EU's rotating presidency, argued that Moscow had met commitments necessary to allow resumption of the talks, delayed in September after Georgia and Russia had fought a five-day war. And Sarkozy told a news conference after an EU summit in Brussels the agreement of all 27 EU states was in any case not needed as the talks had simply been postponed, not suspended.
European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso said the EU executive had urged the restart of the talks on a broad new pact covering all aspects of relations with Moscow. "To my Lithuanian and Polish friends, I would say to you, it is actually better for you to have a united Europe speaking to Russia," Barroso told the news conference. "It may not be a position entirely to your liking, but ... there is a shared interest. We want to be able to speak with a single voice to Russia as a union. In that way we have a great deal more weight in defending our interests, in defending our values."
"That way we can all surrender together."
Most EU states back a restart of the talks with Russia, a key energy supplier, despite concerns over its troop presence in two breakaway Georgian regions and over its plans to station missiles on EU borders. The restart could be finalised at an EU-Russia summit in Nice, France on Nov. 14.
However Lithuania has firmly opposed the move, and Poland has also expressed reservations. EU foreign ministers will broach the matter at regular talks in Brussels on Monday.
For some strange reason they don't trust the Russians ...
Lithuania argues talks should be renewed only when Russia withdraws its troops in Georgia's rebel South Ossetia and Abkhazia regions to positions held before the August war. It wants the decision delayed until spring.
Sarkozy contended Russia had stuck to its commitment to withdraw its forces to pre-conflict lines, to a ceasefire, to allow deployment of EU ceasefire observers and to launch talks on the future of the two breakaway regions. He said he had expressed significant concerns about Russian President Dmitry Medvedev's announcement this week of plans to deploy missiles near Poland in response to U.S. plans for an anti-missile system, but it did not seem reaonable to create a crisis between the European Union and Russia. "I think it's best to see one another if we have things to talk about," Sarkozy said. "It's much better than to ignore one another and refuse to meet with one another."
Well sure, now that you've expressed your 'concerns' ...
Some EU states, including Britain, back restarting the talks but want EU foreign ministers on Monday to agree a statement noting that Russia has not fully met conditions, diplomats say.
Lithuanian President Valdas Adamkus and Polish President Lech Kaczynski met on the sidelines of the summit and a Lithuanian government statement said they stressed that the EU must not make concessions when Russia had not met its promises. "There are questions to which nobody has actually responded," Adamkus said on arrival. "So the question is: are we going ahead without fulfilling the commitments that were made?"
Posted by: Steve White ||
11/08/2008 00:00 ||
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#5
saying the bloc had to speak with a single voice in negotiations with Moscow.
Peculiar choice of words I'd say. With EU short memory and total approval of course.....New "Bloc" meet old "Bloc." How are we doing so far Mr. Putin."
NEW DELHI - India and China, which had fought a brief but bloody war in 1962, will hold their first joint army exercise on Indian soil in mid-December. The India-China exercise will be conducted in the second week of December in Belgaum (Karnataka), Defence Minister A K Antony told IANS.
Forging new military ties amid soaring trade and business links, an Indian Army team went to China in December last year for the first war games between the two countries near the city of Kunming. This will be the first time that Chinese Army troops will come to India to conduct military exercises. It will really be a delightful exercise in the 62 years of independence, Antony said.
Military ties between the two countries have seen a thaw in recent times with Chinese Navy chief Admiral Wu Sheng Li coming on his maiden visit to the country this week and Indian Air Force chief Air Chief Marshal Fali H. Major going to Beijing. The IAFs Surya Kiran Aerobatic Team, which has enthralled spectators worldwide with its intricate manoeuvres in the skies, also performed in China for the first time this week.
Major went to Beijing with a proposal for joint air exercises with the Chinese Peoples Liberation Armys air force. Indian and Chinese warships have already been making calls at either countrys ports.
A memorandum of understanding (MoU) was signed between India and China in May 2006 during a visit by the then defence minister and current External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee that stipulated that the two countries would hold joint military exercises, join forces in counter-terrorism and anti-piracy efforts and also cooperate in search and rescue operations.
Posted by: Steve White ||
11/08/2008 00:00 ||
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#3
Not sure whether this is a typo or merely prescient:
Iran plans to increase its oil production to 5 bpd by the end of 2010, while the country's refining capacity is projected to double to 3.2 million bpd, Emadi declared.
#4
RWW Iran can not refine much of it's own oil. Not even enough to cover their own domestic needs. They must first export the oil to India, it gets refined there, and then imported back to Iran. I imagine that it's quite the sore point for the Masters Of The World.
I am reminded of this Rube Goldberg like arrangement every time I hear "Iran is on the brink" of fielding a deliverable nuclear weapon.
Posted by: Minister of funny walks ||
11/08/2008 17:11 Comments ||
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AIG is just now learning that being on the dole sux. They want a do-over with a better interest rate
Now they also want the government to buy their still-falling CDSs it has on its books.
According to some financial blogs, AIG wants to get this done before they report earnings Monday, after their debt gets downgraded.
From TFA:
AIG is also proposing the government buy the bonds underlying its troubled portfolio of credit default swaps in exchange for the roughly $30bn in collateral the company holds against the assets.
Losses on the mortgage-backed assets, which were acquired by AIG with the proceeds of its securities lending programme, and the CDSs caused the company's collapse.
Since the government rescue, they have continued to haunt AIG, which is required to put up extra capital every time the value of these assets falls. AIG and the Fed declined to comment.
#1
Too bad I didn't get an invitation to the feast and orgy. I could have used a bit of help, but, sigh, I didn't screw up enough to get an invitation. Like the rest of the luckless taxpayers, I just got screwed.
Posted by: Richard of Oregon ||
11/08/2008 9:12 Comments ||
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Expect a sudden and desperate 'CRISIS' to develop if congress hesitates on the new bailout. Their fiscal health changes daily depending on their perception of their chances of sticking their greasy ham-fists into a pile of taxpayer money.
#3
New Management Incentive Plan - performance bonus no longer based on earnings but on amount of Bailout Bucks you can secure for the corporation. If you make you Bailout Bucks metric you will earn a big performance bonus.
#4
I'm all for it....as long as the top 200 execs promise to work for a dollar a year. (I mean, look on the bright side, guys....you'll be well under the 250k mark, so it's a huge favor to you, really!)
#5
This is going to continue to happen up to the point Obama steps in and nationalizes Wall Street and the Banks.
If President Bush had a background in finance or if his Treasury Secretary were not an 'academic', or if anyone in the Congress had any actual Wall Street experience they could have stopped this debacle in its tracks long ago.
Modify the mark-to-market rules allowing an 20-40-60-80-100 realization of mark to market losses to allow the firms time to work out the real value of the underlying securities.
Instead, they inject capital into selected firms, hand picked by an unaccountable bureaucrat, so that those firms can buy up their competitors. It is the single most unfair way to solve the problem with the medicine having no relation to the underlying illness.
Ivory Tower academics running the economy and now a socialist going to collectivize the whole thing.
Not a good time to be an American.
Posted by: DanNY ||
11/08/2008 14:19 Comments ||
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#7
Glenmore is right. Notice that the big states and the other industries are yammering for their share of Bailout Bucks.
So long, capitalism, it was nice while it lasted ...
Posted by: Steve White ||
11/08/2008 17:54 Comments ||
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#8
It has, and will always be a "good time to be an American." This is a left-wing, moonbat, Hollywoodistan abomaly. Not at all the norm. My prediction, one way or another we'll kick this stuff off of our boots in good time.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
BRUSSELS- The European Commission urged Lithuania and Poland to drop objections to restarting talks on closer ties with Russia on Friday, saying the bloc had to speak with a single voice in negotiations with Moscow.
