MOSCOW, Russia (Reuters) -- Russia's strategic bombers have resumed the Soviet Union's Cold War practice of flying long-haul missions to areas patrolled by NATO and the United States, generals said on Thursday.
A Russian bomber flew over a U.S. military base on the Pacific island of Guam on Wednesday and "exchanged smiles" with U.S. pilots who had scrambled to track it, said Maj. Gen. Pavel Androsov, head of long-range aviation in the Russian air force.
"It has always been the tradition of our long-range aviation to fly far into the ocean, to meet [U.S.] aircraft carriers and greet [U.S. pilots] visually," Androsov told a news conference.
"Yesterday we revived this tradition, and two of our young crews paid a visit to the area of the [U.S. Pacific Naval Activities] base of Guam," he said.
President Vladimir Putin has sought to make Russia more assertive in the world.
Putin has boosted defense spending and sought to raise morale in the armed forces, which were starved of funding in the chaos that followed the fall of the Soviet Union.
Androsov said the sortie by the two turboprop Tu-95MS bombers, from a base near Blagoveshchensk in the Far East, had lasted for 13 hours. The Tu-95, codenamed "Bear" by NATO, is Russia's Cold War icon and may stay in service until 2040.
"I think the result was good. We met our colleagues -- fighter jet pilots from [U.S.] aircraft carriers. We exchanged smiles and returned home," Androsov said.
U.S. officials told CNN, however, that the two bombers came no closer than 100 miles to any U.S. aircraft and no closer than 300 miles to the Navy ships, and that there was no visual contact.
Ivan Safranchuk, Moscow office director of the Washington-based World Security Institute, said he saw nothing extraordinary in Moscow sending its bombers around the globe.
"This practice as such never stopped, it was only scaled down because there was less cash available for that," he said. "It doesn't cost much to flex your muscles ... You can burn fuel flying over your own land or you can do it flying somewhere like Guam, in which case political dividends will be higher."
The bombers give Russia the capability of launching a devastating nuclear strike even if the nuclear arsenals on its own territory are wiped out.
During the Cold War, they played elaborate airborne games of cat-and-mouse with Western air forces.
Lt. Gen. Igor Khvorov, air force chief of staff, said the West would have to come to terms with Russia asserting its geopolitical presence around the globe.
"But I don't see anything unusual, this is business as usual ... like it is normal for the U.S. to fly from its continent to Guam or, say, the island of [Diego]Garcia," Khvorov said, referring to a remote Indian Ocean atoll used as a military base by the U.S.
On Wednesday, young pilots of strategic bombers passed a series of tests, including missile launches. "We fired eight cruise missiles, and all hit bull's eye," Khvorov said.
He said one crew had taken off from Engels in southwestern Russia, hit a target in the north and then flown thousands of kilometers before finally landing in the Far East.
Engels is home to Russia's supersonic Tupolev Tu-160 strategic bombers, in service since 1987 and codenamed "Blackjack" by NATO while called "White Swan" by Russian pilots.
The generals said under Putin long-range aviation was no longer hindered by a lack of fuel, the aircraft enjoyed better maintenance and the crews much higher wages -- not the least because the Kremlin leader once made a five-hour sortie as part of a "White Swan" crew.
"The president learned about the pilots' work the hard way," Khvorov said. "This one flight yielded an awful lot."
Russia has committed an "act of aggression" against Georgia by firing a guided missile at its territory, officials in Tbilisi say.
They say the missile landed outside the village of Tsitelubani on Monday, some 60km (37 miles) north-west of the capital Tbilisi, but did not explode.
Georgia has now made a formal protest to Russia over the incident. Moscow denies all the accusations.
Relations between the two countries have been strained in recent years.
Moscow is angry about Georgia's plans to join Nato, while Tbilisi accuses Russia of trying to destabilise Georgia.
'Powerful missile'
Georgian officials say two Russian "Su-type" jets launched the missile at 1930 (1530 GMT) on Monday.
Interior Ministry spokesman Shota Ustiashvili told the BBC the planes had flown some 70km (43 miles) over Georgia, firing the "modern and powerful" rocket, which weighed about a ton.
Mr Ustiashvhili said the jets flew from a Russian base in the North Caucasus before firing the missile, which landed just metres from a house.
Local resident Ilia Psuturi told Reuters news agency: "I was sitting in my garden... when I saw a plane in the sky.
"I then saw smoke rising from the ground up to the sky and only then did I hear the explosion. The plane then turned around," he said.
Georgian officials said they had gathered fragments of missile fins and other debris near a small crater where the rocket landed.
"It has become common practice for the Russian air force and for the government troops to sneak into the Georgian territory," Mr Ustiashvili said.
"But what is different in this incident... is that they have threatened Georgian airspace much deeper, and that they have used a very powerful bomb."
Georgian Foreign Minister Gela Bezhuashvili told the BBC the missile firing was an "act of aggression".
He said foreign diplomats in Georgia were being asked for a "stronger and clear-cut response" to the incident from the international community.
South Ossetia theory
Earlier on Tuesday, Georgia's foreign ministry handed a note of protest to the Russian ambassador in Tbilisi, although Moscow continued to deny all accusations.
"Russia's air force neither on Monday nor Tuesday flew flights over Georgia," said Col Alexander Drobyshevsky, an aide to the commander of Russia's air force.
"Russia has not violated the borders of sovereign Georgia."
Tsitelubani is not far from Georgia's breakaway region of South Ossetia, which receives political support from Moscow, says the BBC's James Rodgers in Moscow.
South Ossetia's leader Eduard Kokoiti said Georgian planes fired the missile to discredit Russia.
"This is a well-planned provocation," said Mr Kokoiti, who holds Russian citizenship.
But a Russian defence analyst, Alexander Golts, said that without objective, hard information on the incident, it was impossible to lay the blame on either Russian or Georgian aircraft.
"While no one can say for sure whether it was a fuel tank or a rocket or a bomb which fell, I fail to see why a Russian plane would bomb territory close to South Ossetia," he told the BBC News website.
Strained relations
The conflicting accounts of the incident reflect ongoing tensions between Georgia and Russia, our correspondent says.
Relations between Moscow and Tbilisi deteriorated sharply last year when Georgia expelled four Russian army officers it accused of spying.
The deportation triggered a furious diplomatic row, with Moscow imposing economic sanctions against its neighbour and deporting a number of Georgians.
Georgian officials have frequently claimed that Russian military aircraft have violated its airspace - accusations always denied by Russia.
The worst problems have usually been related to regional conflicts - the frozen conflicts in South Ossetia and Abkhazia.
Many Georgians accuse Russia of imperialism, while Russia criticises Georgia for nationalism and pursuing an anti-Russian foreign policy.
UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) -- The U.N. Security Council voted unanimously on Tuesday to authorize up to 26,000 troops and police in an effort to stop attacks on millions of displaced civilians in Sudan's Darfur region.
Expected to cost more than $2 billion in the first year, the combined United Nations-African Union operation aims to quell violence in Darfur, where more than 2.1 million people have been driven into camps and an estimated 200,000 have died over the last four years.
The resolution allows the use of force in self-defense, to ensure freedom of movement for humanitarian workers and to protect civilians under attack.
But the measure, which has been watered down several times, no longer allows the new force to seize and dispose of illegal arms. Now they can only monitor such weapons.
Gone also is a threat of future sanctions but British Prime Minister Gordon Brown warned on Tuesday that "if any party blocks progress and the killings continue, I and others will redouble our efforts to impose further sanctions."
"The plan for Darfur from now on is to achieve a cease-fire, including an end to aerial bombings of civilians; drive forward peace talks ... and, as peace is established, offer to begin to invest in recovery and reconstruction," he said on a visit to the United Nations.
Specifically, the text authorizes up to 19,555 military personnel and 6,432 civilian police.
The resolution calls on member states to finalize their contributions to the new force, called UNAMID or the United Nations-African Union Mission in Darfur, within 30 days. UNAMID would incorporate the under-equipped and under-financed 7,000 African Union troops now in Darfur.
Rape, looting, murder and government bombardment drove millions from their homes in Darfur, where mostly non-Arab rebels took up arms in early 2003, accusing Khartoum of neglecting their arid region.
The rebels have now split into a dozen groups, many fighting each other.
Somehow, I have a feeling that security wouldn't even be able to prevent them from doing it if hackers like those really tried. If so, I hope the hackers are Republicans. lol
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Prime Minister Gordon Brown traveled to the United States on Sunday, saying he planned to use the official visit to strengthen what Britain already considers its "most important bilateral relationship."
"It is a relationship that is founded on our common values of liberty, opportunity and the dignity of the individual," Brown said in a statement.
"And because of the values we share, the relationship with the United States is not only strong, but can become stronger in the years ahead."
Brown, making his first visit to the U.S. as Britain's new leader, also denied speculation that the bilateral relationship was cooling.
His predecessor, Tony Blair, was often accused at home of being too compliant with the policies of President Bush, especially regarding the Iraq war. Some analysts have urged Brown to be more like Prime Ministers Margaret Thatcher and Winston Churchill, who had close ties with the U.S. but remained frank about their own goals and policies
Brown makes his first major overseas trip buoyed by a surprising degree of public support after a first month in office in which he impressed with his sober handling of the terror plots in London and Glasgow.
Brown, who arrived at Andrews Air Force Base east of Washington just before 5 p.m. EDT, was traveling with British foreign secretary David Miliband.
Many observers expected Brown to flop because of a personality often derided as dour and brooding -- yet these very traits have helped him appear serious and statesmanlike.
Britons actually seem pleased with the contrast to the kinetic Blair. But questions abound over whether the intellectual Brown will kindle Blair's chemistry with Bush.
Brown arrives with some thorny issues to manage, not least the fate of Britain's remaining soldiers in Iraq.
In Washington, officials expressed optimism about warm ties between Bush and Brown, but there have already been frictions.
Junior foreign affairs minister Mark Malloch-Brown raised eyebrows in Washington recently when he said Bush and Brown would not be "joined at the hip" -- a jab at Blair's close relationship with the U.S. president.
In London, The Sunday Times reported that Simon McDonald, Brown's chief foreign policy adviser, recently traveled to Washington to meet with U.S. officials ahead of the prime minister's visit and discussed the possibility of an early British military withdrawal from Iraq.
Brown's spokesman Michael Ellam told reporters on Sunday that McDonald had made it "very clear" to U.S. officials there had been no change to British government policy over Iraq.
Military chiefs in London have said Britain is likely to hand over control of the southern Iraqi city of Basra to local forces by the end of the year.
Around 500 of Britain's 5,500 troops in Iraq are due to hand over the Basra Palace city center base within weeks, defense officials have said. Brown has not outlined plans for the remaining 5,000 personnel, stationed at an airport on the fringes of the city.
Ellam said there was no plan to withdraw British troops before the Iraqi army is deemed capable of maintaining security.
Asked whether Brown intended to discuss with Bush plans for British troops once they withdraw to the fringes of the city, Ellam said: "Clearly decisions have to be made on all of these matters."
Other difficult issues include the American push to build a missile defense system in Eastern Europe, the Iran nuclear showdown, Darfur and the status of the breakaway Serbian province of Kosovo.
Aides said the British leader aimed to secure Bush's help in restarting the stalled Doha rounds of World Trade Organization talks, which seek to help poorer countries develop their economies through new trade.
He also wanted to discuss a stiffer international response to the violence in Sudan's Darfur region.
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The United States and India announced Friday a landmark deal on nuclear cooperation for civil purposes that they said will benefit both countries and strengthen international non-proliferation efforts.
But the deal is drawing criticism as being too conciliatory to India and opening the way to the spread of nuclear weapons.
For the first time in 30 years, India will have access to U.S. nuclear fuel and technology, even though New Delhi, which has tested nuclear weapons, refuses to join international non-proliferation agreements.
"The conclusion of negotiations on this agreement marks a major step forward in fulfilling the promise of full civil nuclear cooperation as envisioned by President Bush and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh," said U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Indian Foreign Minister Shri Pranab Mukherjee in a joint written statement.
The new civil nuclear cooperation between the two countries will "offer enormous strategic and economic benefits to both countries, including enhanced energy security, a more environmentally friendly energy source, greater economic opportunities, and more robust non-proliferation efforts," the statement said.
India's Cabinet approved the deal Wednesday.
Several steps need to be taken before the agreement can be implemented. India must negotiate an inspection regime with the U.N. nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency, and gain approval from the 45-nation Nuclear Suppliers Group.
The U.S. Congress must also review the deal. Many lawmakers and non-proliferation experts have voiced concern about what they see as U.S. concessions to New Delhi. In particular, the United States has agreed to ensure continued delivery of nuclear fuel to India even if it tests a nuclear weapon and the United States suspends cooperation, as required by law.
U.S. officials said that a further Indian nuclear test is unlikely, although the Indian government has maintained its right to test nuclear weapons and the deal does not place India's considerable nuclear weapons arsenal under international monitoring.
Non-proliferation experts have said the United States' willingness to allow India to reprocess nuclear fuel it provides to New Delhi is inconsistent with its drive in the international community to stop Iran from doing so. Unlike New Delhi, Tehran is a signatory to the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.
Until now the United States has allowed only key allies like the European Union and Japan to reprocess U.S.-originated fuel on their own soil.
But Undersecretary of State for Political Affairs Nick Burns told reporters Friday that the agreement "sends an important message to nuclear outlaw regimes, such as Iran."
"It sends a message that if you behave responsibly in regards to nonproliferation, and you play by the rules, you will not penalized, but will be invited to participate more fully in international nuclear trade," he said.
Burns said the United States sees India's civil nuclear program as a special case and doesn't envision entering into an agreement with any other states.
"I can assure you that the United State is not going to suggest a similar deal with any other country in the world. We have always felt of India as an exception," Burns said. "We've made the argument that India has not proliferated its nuclear technology. That India, in effect, outside the system, has played by the rules and the system would be strengthened by bringing it in.
"But we are not anticipating in any way, shape or form a similar deal for any other country."
It's about time this deal finally went through, it is in the interest of the US to gain India as an ally as soon as possible by any means necessary. India will be playing a key role in the coming future for the containment and counterbalancing of China. The Cold War differences between the two nations are over, and the dawn of a new era in strategic alliance is beginning to emerge between the US and India.
KABUL, Afghanistan (CNN) -- One of 23 South Koreans held hostage in Afghanistan by the Taliban has been killed, and militants have threatened to execute 14 others, a local official and a Taliban spokesman told CNN on Wednesday.
Eight hostages have been released, a South Korean official in Washington said.
Police in southeastern Ghazni province confirmed that the dead man's bullet-riddled body was found in the Qara Bagh district, where the Koreans were kidnapped July 19.
"We found a male dead body of a South Korean who has got 10 bullet holes in his body, bullet holes from head to toe," said provincial police chief Gen. Ali Shah Ahmadzai.
Khawaja Mohammad Siddiqi, the district governor of Qara Bagh, told CNN the executed hostage had been very ill and could not be moved to hospital.
The 14 hostages still being held could be executed by early morning Thursday if demands by Taliban militants aren't met, said Taliban spokesman Qari Mohammad Yousif Ahmadi.
The South Korean was killed, said Ahmadi, because the Taliban's demands of a prisoner release and withdrawal of South Korean troops from Afghanistan were not met.
"Since Kabul's administration did not listen to our demand and did not free our prisoners, the Taliban shot dead a male Korean hostage," Ahmadi said.
"That time is the last deadline," he told Reuters.
Ahmadi told CNN it is likely that the remaining hostages would be killed by 1 a.m. Thursday (4:30 p.m. ET Wednesday) if those demands are not answered.
Siddiqi said the Taliban were holding the remaining Korean hostages in three locations.
The 23 church volunteers -- 18 women and five men -- were seized on the main road south from Kabul last week.
Afghan President Hamid Karzai has pledged not to swap prisoners for hostages after being heavily criticized for releasing five Taliban members from jail in March in exchange for an Italian reporter.
The Taliban has also demanded Seoul withdraw its 200 troops from Afghanistan, something the South Korean government said it had planned to do at the end of this year in any case.
Meanwhile, a German journalist kidnapped in eastern Afghanistan has been freed, the Kunar province governor told CNN.
The German news magazine Stern earlier on Wednesday said Christoph Reuter, 39, and his Afghan translator were missing and feared kidnapped. There was no word about the status of the Afghan translator.
Reuter has worked for the Hamburg-based publication since 2002 and had previously reported from Afghanistan and Iraq, writing a book on suicide bombers.
According to Stern, Reuter left Kabul for Jalalabad on Monday, but had not contacted the magazine for several days.
The statement said Stern was concerned for his welfare. News reports said the kidnapping occurred late Tuesday.
Elsewhere in Afghanistan, more than 20 insurgents were killed in fighting Wednesday in the southern province of Kandahar, the U.S.-led coalition said. Militants in three compounds using rocket-propelled grenades, machine guns and small arms ambushed Afghan security forces accompanied by coalition troops near the village of Chenar Tu.
Also, a French army officer and a British soldier died in fighting in eastern Afghanistan Wednesday.
My heart goes out to the hostage that was killed and his family. This is indeed a tuff situation for the South Koreans but they must stand strong and not allow this act of cowardness to soften them. I hope all the other hostages are freed but the life of that innocent man was lost and cannot be forgiven under any circumstances by the South Korean Government. I hope this encourages the South Korean Government to increase it's military presence in the fight against Terrorism.
First off, my Crusades topic is gone and when I make a comment about it in the WTMC thread, it gets deleted as well. Why is it that my opinions, which stay well within the rules of the forum are being deleted?
JERUSALEM (Reuters) -- Tony Blair landed in Israel on Monday for his first visit as an international envoy, hoping to help end 60 years of peacemaking failure since Britain handed Palestine to Jews and Arabs who are still fighting over the territory.
"Mission Impossible," as skeptics have dubbed the newly retired British prime minister's task for the Quartet powers, began quietly in what his spokesman called "listening mode."
Blair said nothing in public after meeting Jordan's foreign minister in Amman and then Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni in Jerusalem.
On Tuesday, he will meet Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Prime Minister Salam Fayyad in Ramallah before talks in Jerusalem with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert.
"This is a preliminary visit to hear the views of key Israelis and Palestinians about the issues that have to be addressed in order to fulfil the demanding mandate Mr. Blair has taken on," Blair's spokesman said.
"Mr Blair will also have the chance to hear from a number of important Arab leaders their views on the situation and consider with them how best we can jointly make progress."
The Quartet -- the United States, European Union, United Nations and Russia -- has asked Blair to present by September an initial plan for building ruling institutions needed to establish a viable Palestinian state alongside Israel.
But that limited mandate could expand later into a more direct peacemaking role between the parties, diplomats say.
That might unsettle Israel. Olmert's spokeswoman, Miri Eisin, made clear Israel saw Blair's role as supporting Palestinian institutions.
"Seeing their capacity to rule grow will definitely help the bilateral track," she told reporters.
Blair faces serious obstacles to success in a role that has doomed his predecessors' efforts. A Palestinian state seems more remote than ever, with their territories divided between Hamas Islamists in coastal Gaza and Abbas' secular Fatah faction in the Israeli-occupied West Bank inland.
Israel's government may be too weak to deliver concessions such as the withdrawal of Jewish settlements. Many Arabs resent Blair's role in invading Iraq, and the Quartet remains divided over whether he should have a broader negotiating mandate.
In his favor may be eagerness among leaders on both sides to raise their stock at home by showing progress towards peace.
A close relationship with President George W. Bush may give added clout to Blair, a relatively youthful 54-year-old successful in peacemaking in his Northern Irish backyard.
Abbas wants Blair to pressure Israel to ease its military grip on the West Bank and take steps to accelerate negotiations.
For Hamas in Gaza, spokesman Fawzi Barhoum said Blair must deal with the Islamist movement and avoid "double standards."
Personally, I hope Israel isn't pressured into an decisions that won't benefit them 100%. I strongly support Israel and it's actions, and I hope they do what they want to and not listan to anyone else.
Lydia Playfoot says ring should be exempt from school ban on jewelry.
LONDON - A teenager whose teachers had stopped her wearing a “purity ring” at school to symbolize her commitment to virginity has lost a High Court fight against the ban.
Lydia Playfoot, 16, says her silver ring is an expression of her faith and had argued in court that it should be exempt from school regulations banning the wearing of jewelry.
“I am very disappointed by the decision this morning by the High Court not to allow me to wear my purity ring to school as an expression of my Christian faith not to have sex outside marriage,” Playfoot said in a statement Monday.
“I believe that the judge’s decision will mean that slowly, over time, people such as school governors, employers, political organizations and others will be allowed to stop Christians from publicly expressing and practicing their faith.”
Series of disputes Playfoot’s legal challenge was the latest in a series of disputes in British schools in recent years over the right of pupils to wear religious symbols or clothing, such as crucifixes and veils.
Last year, the Law Lords rejected Shabina Begum’s appeal for permission to wear a Muslim gown at her school in Luton. That case echoed a debate in France over the banning of Muslim headscarves in state schools.
Playfoot’s parents are key members of the British arm of the American chastity campaign group the Silver Ring Thing, a religious group which urges abstinence among young people.
Those who sign up wear a ring on the third finger of the left hand. It is inscribed with “Thess. 4:3-4,” a reference to a Biblical passage from Thessalonians which reads: “God wants you to be holy, so you should keep clear of all sexual sin.”
Show Posts
