The US vice-president, Dick Cheney, yesterday issued a direct challenge to Moscow's sway over Georgia, pledging Washington's support for its eventual membership of Nato, while denouncing Russia's "illegitimate" invasion. "Georgia will be in our alliance," Cheney said after talks with President Mikheil Saakashvili. WSWS: CHENEY IN GEORGIA: GUNBOAT DIPLOMACY IN PURSUIT OF OIL. Regnum: Cheney chief Russophobia-inciting ringleader around Russia — Kosachev. RIA Novosti: Russia says Cheney encourages 'Georgian aggression'. Global Research: Russia, Europe and USA: Fundamental Geopolitics. Bzangy Groink: US Hypocrisy Reaches Critical Mass: "US Vice-President Dick Cheney has condemned what he called Russia’s “illegitimate” attempt to change Georgia’s borders last month. Mr Cheney added that Russia’s actions during the recent conflict with Georgia had cast doubt on its reliability as an international partner.". This is the same Dick Cheney that said that the butchering of over one million Iraqis by illegally invading US forces was, in his words, a “major success.” Was Cheney so worried about borders when his country invaded a sovereign, non-aggressor nation, committing a war crime?

Nato's early-warning surveillance system has been plugged into Georgia's air-defence network in the first evidence that the US-led alliance is shoring up the country's shattered military. Alliance officials said that the arrangement enabled Nato radar specialists to be linked up to the Georgian radar systems. “It means Nato can now see what the Georgians are seeing through their radars, effectively allowing the alliance to monitor what is going on over Georgian airspace without having military assets in place,” one official said.

A total of 502 refugees returned to South Ossetia from North Ossetia during the previous 24 hours, a spokesman for the Russian republic's Emergencies Ministry said Friday. Vladimir Ivanov said 30,602 people had returned to South Ossetia from Russia's Southern federal district since August 12, when Russia concluded its operation to "force Georgia to peace." The spokesman also said 6,545 South Ossetian refugees were currently staying with relatives in Russia's North Ossetia. Russia Today: Joint declaration on South Ossetia to be signed in Moscow.

Here are the Republican Party campaign slogans that you will never hear this year: ►Interventionism, at home and abroad: Vote Republican. ►Nationalism, fascism, and statism: Vote Republican. ►Militarism, puritanism, and collectivism: Vote Republican. ►Debt, deficits, and a declining dollar: Vote Republican. ►Big government, big brother, big budgets: Vote Republican. ►The warfare state, the welfare state, the surveillance state: Vote Republican. ►Corporate welfare, the military-industrial and security-industrial complexes: Vote Republican. ►Compromises after compromise, sellout after sellout: Vote Republican. There is not a dime’s worth of difference between the Democratic and Republican Parties when it comes to peace, liberty, property, free markets, sound money, and the size and scope of government. The Republican Party is not the lesser of two evils. It is, like the Democratic Party, stupid and evil. The Greanville Journal: Don’t count the Greater Evil out yet: With varying degrees of confidence or even complacency, many people have assumed that the jig is almost up for the horrendous political era that began when George W. Bush became president. Always dubious, the assumption is now on very shaky ground. The Bush-Cheney regime may be on its last legs, but a new incarnation of right-wing populism is shadowing the near horizon. The Real News: Sarah Palin's Hidden Base (Video). WSWS: Democrats and media cower in face of Republicans’ right-wing demagogy. Yahoo: Palin repeatedly lied last night.

Three children and two women were killed when missiles fired by a suspected unmanned US aircraft hit a Pakistani tribal village Friday in the third such attack in as many days, officials said. The strike hit two houses belonging to tribesmen in North Waziristan's Goorweck Baipali village, 30 kilometres (18 miles) west of the main town of Miranshah, and located right on the border with Afghanistan, they said. "Three children and two women have been killed in the missile strike, which destroyed two village homes," an official said, adding that one woman was injured. "We suspect that the missiles were fired by forces across the border," the official added. Residents said two pilotless aircraft fired three missiles. The latest strike follows Pakistani accusations that US-led forces based in Afghanistan killed 15 people in a border village on Wednesday in neighbouring South Waziristan district. BBC: US bomb 'kills five people in Pakistan'. R. Netherlands: US strike claims innocent lives in Pakistan. Reuters: Pakistanis furious over U.S.-led border raid. PressTV: US mulling more strikes in Pakistan.

A deadly American-led raid on a Pakistani village embarrassed the government and eroded support for the pro-U.S. presidential front-runner Thursday just two days before the election. Furor continued to mount over the first known foreign ground assault inside Pakistan against a suspected Taliban haven. The government summoned the U.S. ambassador for an official protest, while Parliament passed resolutions of condemnation. AntiWar: Raid May Herald More Confrontational Policy. WSWS: US attack inside Pakistan threatens dangerous new war.

"The reason I killed myself was 'cause I was getting evicted and I can't handle being homeless. I also am very depressed since I was in 9/11. I've been drinking way too much and it's ruined my life. I've lost friends and family over drinking and I'm very lonely. There is nothing left for me to be happy about other than my cat. Sounds weird, but it's true. I just wanted to say sorry 2 any people I ever hurt in my life. I really was a good person when I wasn't drinking. I hope people remember that! Goodbye!!! -Kenny Johannemann" On a separate sheet was a plea: "Please find my cat a home. His name is Papa-Boy and he's a very special cat."

Suicides among active-duty soldiers this year are on pace to exceed both last year's all-time record and, for the first time since the Vietnam War, the rate among the general U.S. population, Army officials said yesterday. Ninety-three active-duty soldiers had killed themselves through the end of August, the latest data show. A third of those cases are under investigation by the Armed Forces Medical Examiner's Office. In 2007, 115 soldiers committed suicide.

I understand that people are afraid to face the fact that 9/11 and the anthrax attacks were inside jobs, because that would be painful. It would challenge their assumptions of benign father figures running our government, and would mean that there is no Santa Claus and governments sometimes do horrible things to their own people to justify power-grabs. (Despite my sarcasm, I actually try to sympathize with people who are locked in a prison of fear). But if Americans had gotten a spine a couple of years ago and had the courage to deal with reality, we could have thrown the bums behind these false flag attacks out on their ears (and into jail), held a truth and reconciliation commission, appointed honest leaders, gone through the healing process, and gotten back on track towards the effort to try to make real what the Founding Fathers wrote about in the Constitution.

After struggling for years to improve the treatment of cancer, scientists now hope to fight the disease with the help of the same techniques that deciphered the human genome eight years ago: mapping it. Traditionally, researchers have started with a fuzzy premise about which toxic drugs might kill tumors and then tested those drugs in the lab, in animals and, finally, in human subjects. This helps explain why some 35 years after Richard Nixon declared a "war on cancer," there has been only limited progress in the treatment of most of the 200 cancers that afflict humans. Health Salon: Scientists may have cured cancer (last week). Don't believe them? We don't either!ExpressIndia: The genetic secrets of cancer 'unlocked': Study.

Residents of Haiti were last night clearing up the devastation caused by Tropical Storm Hanna, as officials in the US prepared for the storm to hit. Hanna caused major flooding in Haiti this week, leaving at least 61 people dead and thousands more stranded on rooftops without food or clean water. The President, Rene Preval, has called the situation catastrophic and appealed for international help. A UN mission is assisting with relief efforts in the hard-hit northern city of Gonaives, where 200,000 people have been affected by floods and mudslides. Forecasters expect Hanna to regain hurricane strength today as it continues on a path toward the south-eastern US. The Governor of Virginia already has declared a state of emergency.

Most of New Jersey is under a flood watch as Tropical Storm Hanna churns up the Atlantic Coast, unleashing a barrage of heavy wind and rain, according to the National Weather Service. Reuters: Warming oceans make strongest storms stronger: study: Gustav made landfall on Monday just west of New Orleans; three more storms churned toward the U.S. mainland on Wednesday. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration predicts 12 to 16 tropical storms between June 1 and November 30 this year, with six to nine hurricanes and two to five major hurricanes.

The Games are another chance for China to show the world what it can do. Yet this is a country where disabled people are shunned. [It] is not until you are inside the Paralympic Village itself that you see a single Chinese person in a wheelchair or one with any other obvious disabilities; China's 83 million disabled are a largely invisible presence in a country where disabilities are viewed as a source of shame in some families, particularly in urban areas, and where discrimination is widespread.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad says sanctions by the UN Security Council against his country's nuclear program have no legal basis. "We regard sanctions as illegal and don't recognize them," Ahmadinejad said in an interview with NHK, adding Iran has the right to use peaceful nuclear technology under the international law and the Non-proliferation Treaty (NPT).

Today at the Republican National Convention, as the Ron Paul Delegates were taking a picture in front of the model White House inside the Convention Center, they were surrounded by Secret Service which proceeded to search the bags of all the delegates. They took any and everything related to Ron Paul including signs, buttons, videos, slim jims, cards, even books.

Legislator Jamal Al Khodary, head of the Popular Committee Against the Siege, stated on Thursday that a new Break the Siege ship which includes European legislators, physicians, reporters and international figures will sail to Gaza from Cyprus on September 22. Al Khodary added that physicians on board will remain in Gaza to perform surgeries and relief work for sick and injured Palestinians residents. He added that on its way back to Cyprus, the ship will carry nine internationals who remained in Gaza after arriving on board the first ship in addition to nine Palestinians who could not leave after visiting the coastal region. The nine internationals, including the sister of Tony Blair’s wife, arrived on board the SS Liberty and Free Gaza ships on August 23 and delivered aid and essential supplies to the residents. The ships were filled with humanitarian supplies and carried 60 international activists. The Free Gaza Movement (Homepage)

The forthcoming issue of Middle East Policy contains an astonishing piece by Ian Lustick of the University of Pa. on the desperation inside Israel about its future, titled "The Abandonment of the Iron Wall: Israel and the 'Middle Eastern Muck.'" The long piece explores the mistaken ideology that "Israel and Israelis can remain in the Middle East without becoming part of it" and it will surely be grabbed by Barack Obama (and ignored by Sarah Palin), for it pulls together all the narratives that we keep hearing from I/P--the ruthless violence, the hateful fence, the emigration, the "war on terror" as a model for Americans, and not least, the Arabs' hostile passivity and righteous, hardened resistance. I will never think about the region in the same way. The analysis is sure to find its way to the highest levels. It is not online yet, but here is my summary of the argument.

Stock markets fell sharply in London and around the world today, suffering heavy losses in Asia, after signs of weakness in the US jobs market revived worries about the health of the global economy.

Scientists from the Kyushu University in Japan have designed a massive floating power plant that will combine photovoltaic arrays with windmills. This power plant will be deployed off-shore and it will measure 1.25 miles by 0.5 miles and preliminary tests showed that it’s possible and a new generator like this should be ready in about three years. Besides generating clean energy, the power plant will feature LEDs which will provide lighting for the sea therefore seaweed growth will be stimulated and the fish will be attracted there. The modular floating power plant will feature units shaped like a hexagon and will generate electricity thanks to wind turbines and photovoltaic generators.

The war in Afghanistan spilled over on to Pakistani territory for the first time yesterday when heavily armed commandos, believed to be US Special Forces, landed by helicopter and attacked three houses in a village close to a known Taliban and al-Qaida stronghold. Local residents were quoted as saying that most of the dead were civilians and included women and children. It was not known whether any Taliban or al-Qaida militants or western forces were among the dead. Information Clearing House: U.S. Troops Kill 20 in Pakistan Attack. Reuters: Pakistanis furious over U.S.-led border raid. International Herald Tribune: Amerikan Special Operations forces accused of civilian deaths inside Pakistan. Registan.net: DID WE JUST INVADE PAKISTAN?

The police fired tear gas, beanbags and used tasers to arrest hundreds of protesters. Also targeted were independent journalists and photographers and groups that monitor police abuse against protesters. Among those seized by the police were an Associated Press photographer, a group of University of Kentucky student journalists and Amy Goodman, the host of the liberal radio show “Democracy Now!” Goodman was arrested for “interfering with peace officers” when she questioned police about the arrest and bloodying of her show’s two producers. The Real News: Arrested at the RNC: Amy Goodman talks about being detained at the RNC. Online Journal: Ramsey County charges nonviolent Food Not Bombs volunteers under Minnesota version of USAPATRIOT Act, alleges acts of terrorism. The Bush regime's police state war against the constitution and the people marches forward. It is their intent to stomp out protest completely, to remove all resistance, to hobble the people, to grind them down, to terrorize them. Redditorial.com: It’s happening under your noses: The United States of America has become a police state.

The turning of this personal event in the life of an adolescent girl and her family into a media circus is symptomatic of the unhealthy character of American politics and of the media itself. Nonetheless, the Republicans have secretly welcomed the controversy as a means of diverting public attention from more substantive political questions and enabling it to lash out at the traditional villains of its right-wing populist demagogy—the “liberal” media and the Washington “elites.” The media and the Democrats have tip-toed around the most important political implications of the Palin nomination: the fact that one of America’s two major political parties is effectively controlled by forces that can be best described as theocratic fascists, who see her nomination as a means of imposing their ideology on the country at large. AntiWar: PALIN: ‘PRAY THAT’ OUR LEADERS ARE SENDING OUR TROOPS TO IRAQ ‘ON A TASK FROM GOD’. Democratic Underground / Salon: Best statement yet about Palin -- One day on the Greatest Page ain't long enough for this! -What's galling is this: When the subject is a pregnancy to an unwed, minority teenage mother growing up in some (presumably Democratic) urban area, that pregnancy becomes fodder for lectures from conservatives about bad parenting, the perils of welfare spending and so on. But when the subject is a pregnancy to an unwed, white teenager from some small town in a Republican state, that pregnancy is...a celebration of the wonders of God's magnificence--and choosing life!

U.S. Vice Presidential candidate Sarah Palin told the pro-Israel lobby AIPAC on Tuesday that she would "work to expand and deepen the strategic partnership between U.S. and Israel," the group's spokesman told the Wall Street Journal on Wednesday. According to the Wall Street Journal, Palin spent Tuesday in her hotel suite with campaign aides working on her speech at the Republican Convention scheduled for Wednesday. Sources familiar with her schedule said that she also had a private session with Jewish Senator Joe Lieberman. SF Gate: Coming out swinging: Palin Attacks 'Washington Elite'. McClatchy: Palin mocks media, Washington in her debut speech.

Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin took a live road test before the entire nation Wednesday night, and she didn't crash. Whether she broke Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama's record of 38.4 million viewers for his convention speech in Denver last week remains to be seen. The bigger question could be whether she will outshine the man who put her on the GOP ticket. Yahoo: Attacks, praise stretch truth at GOP convention. Jerusalem Post: At the RNC, Palin attacks Obama on Iran. WUFYS: GOP Convention platform was drafted by AIPAC. The People's Voice: New revelations on VP choice heighten crisis of McCain campaign.

Uruknet: An Afghan human rights organisation has accused the United States army of committing war crimes in Afghanistan. The Afghanistan Human Rights Organisation (AHRO) said on Tuesday that, according to their own investigations, civilians are killed in most operations conducted by US forces. AIHRC expressed strong concern about the death of innocent Afghans during military operations and urged those responsible for the killings to face trial. "According to our investigations, 98% of civilian casualties caused by the coalition forces in Afghanistan are intentional," the head of the AHRO, Lal Gul, said. "The actions of the coalition forces, especially the American forces, are not only against the human rights laws, but are considered war crimes. Therefore, these forces have committed war crimes in Afghanistan," he said.

President Dimitri Medvedev criticized the European Union for having a biased approach in regards to the Georgian conflict. Medvedev however stated that the EU acted in a rational manner by not implementing sanctions against the Russian Federation. F William Engdahl believes the EU response mirrors its dependence on Russian oil and gas. Engdahl goes on to further state that the US provoked Russia to respond militarily and the US as the dominant power is beginning to stumble and "to look desperately for ways to hold on to that power." Al Jazeera: US to send $1bn in aid to Georgia.

Nicaragua is taking final steps to officially recognize South Ossetia and Abkhazia, in line with the president's decision, a deputy foreign minister said. Russia recognized the Georgian breakaway regions as independent countries on August 26, two weeks after it concluded its operation "to force Georgia to peace." The operation came in response to an attack by Georgian forces on South Ossetia on August 8. The diplomat said the president's decision would soon be approved by parliament.

U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney visited Georgia's capital Tbilisi on Thursday. The visit comes as U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has said Washington will donate more than $US 1 billion worth of economic aid to Georgia. At the start of his visit Cheney said that the U.S. has "a deep and unbending interest in the region". Al-Manar: Cheney Says US Stands by Georgia, Condemns Russia. PressTV: Georgia airfields earmarked for war on Iran.

“Syria can play a role in Iran's nuclear issue. Iran must not obtain nuclear weapons…but it has the right to peaceful use of nuclear energy," Sarkozy said at a joint press conference following talks with his Syrian counterpart Bashar al-Assad in Damascus on Wednesday. Al-Manar: Sarkozy Winds-Up Syria Visit with Four-Way Summit.

The 9/11 official story is a tale of outlandish incompetence. We are led to believe that Al Qaeda successfully evaded a multi-billion-dollar defense establishment including NORAD, standard FAA intercept procedures, US airbases,[1] the FBI, the CIA, the NSA, international intelligence agencies and more, without any significant or effective resistance. While any serious investigation of the 9/11 attacks was blocked by President Bush and Dick Cheney for more than a year,[2] a theory of systematic and incredible incompetence emerged: Al Qaeda got “lucky”. “It has been said that the intelligence agencies have to be right 100% of the time. And the terrorists only have to get lucky once. This explanation for the devastating attacks of September 11th, simple on its face, is wrong in its value, because the 9-11 terrorists were not just lucky once. They were lucky over and over again.

Tropical storm Hanna has caused flooding and landslides in the Caribbean nation of Haiti, killing 61 people and displacing tens of thousands. Tens of thousands were displaced on Wednesday from the third major storm in just a week to rip through the area causing deaths and devastation, officials said Wednesday. After hurricane Gustav, that killed 77 people, a new wave of seasonal hurricanes targets the US Gulf Coast. Two weeks before Gustav, tropical Storm Fay sparked flooding in Haiti that left about 40 people dead. Hanna packed maximum sustained winds of nearly 95 kilometers per hour, with higher gusts. "Gradual strengthening is expected ... and Hanna could become a hurricane tomorrow (Thursday)," the Miami-based National Hurricane Center said Wednesday. Hanna is expected to move to the southeastern Bahamas and the Turks and Caicos Islands over the next 24 to 36 hours. Two other storms were churning in the Atlantic.

Cohen does not denounce the NATO summit for stoking tensions with Moscow by declaring its agreement in principle to NATO membership for the two unstable countries on Russia’s borders. Rather, Cohen is upset that the European powers, by refusing to agree to a membership plan for Georgia and Ukraine, broadcast NATO’s internal divisions and deprived Ukraine and Georgia of a near-term guarantee of NATO military intervention in the event of an external attack on either of the two countries. Cohen’s outrage is, of course, highly selective. The use of force and the violation of borders in the Caucasus appall Cohen, but he never criticized such actions by the US in the Balkans. That was Roger Cohen. Now, let's see what a real journalist has to say: This is a tale of US expansion not Russian aggression. (The Guardian)

Know your rights when you're out with your camera. Despite the law being clear on a citizen's rights to freely take pictures in public places (with a few restrictions) there is growing evidence of the police, police community support officers (PCSOs), security guards and general jobsworths failing to respect the rights of photographers going about their lawful business.

After 5 Grueling Years, a Moment of Repose. After five-and-a-half years of harsh and gratutious detention, former Florida professor and civil rights activist Dr. Sami Al-Arian was released on bond, reuniting with his family for the first time since his ordeal began in 2003. Earlier today (Tuesday), the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) filed an order for the release of Dr. Al-Arian from their custody. Judge Brinkema originally granted Dr. Al-Arian bail on July 10 and reaffirmed that decision last month, but the ICE continued to detain him until today on the pretext that they were completing deportation procedures.

This introductory clip from the Alex Jones film "Endgame" explains how activities of ruling elite individuals have historically been following an agenda of global domination and consolidation. It explains such issues as how banking cartels, including the Rothchild family of England, have historically been responsible for helping to start major wars such as Word War I and World War II, for the purpose of war profiteering by means of financing both sides of the conflicts.

Roza Malsagova, the editor of the Ingushetiya.ru website, Ingushetia’s only source of independent news and information, has just lost an ally in her struggle against the government’s determination to suppress all coverage of human rights abuses in this southern Russian republic, which adjoins Chechnya and which is contaminated by the region’s conflicts.

The Republican National Convention entered its third day Wednesday with the acceptance speech of the party’s vice presidential candidate, Alaska Governor Sarah Palin, as the main event. Palin’s candidacy, which was announced to general surprise if not outright incredulity last week, has been rolled out in a peculiar political atmosphere. The Republican leadership has kept her completely under wraps, canceling all of her public events and denying any access by the media.

A pod of killer whales line up for a murderous attack on a migrating Gray whale and her calf off the coast of Monterey in California. The orcas know the migration routes that take the Gray whales from Baja on the Pacific side of California - where the calf will have been born during the winter - to the feeding grounds in the Bering Sea off Alaska. Their favourite ambush spot is a deep-water canyon where they wait and listen for the location calls between mother and calf which betray their presence. After lining up for the attack three-abreast, the killer whales sped through the water and continually rammed mother and calf in a bid to separate them. They also crash-landed on top of the calf trying to drown it as mother and baby they desperately swam towards shallower waters where the orcas are reluctant to go. Almost inevitably after a relentless 90-minute assault by orcas weighing several tons, the weakened calf succumbed and the killer pack quickly devoured their preferred parts - the calf's tongue and blubber.

This year we were fortunate enough to witness John McCain, Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton taking turns losing their dignity before the AIPAC crowd. It was so bad and so without criticism by the Mainstream Media that we had to rely upon Jon Stewart of the “Daily Show” to point out the ugly smell of it all. At one point in his parody, Stewart spoke of John McCain taking with him Sen. Joe Lieberman on a visit to Israel, advising McCain that when you visit Israel, “you don’t need to bring your own Jew.”

Scientists from Oregon State University and the Natural History Museum in London have announced the discovery of the oldest known fossil of a gecko, with body parts that are forever preserved in life-like form after 100 million years of being entombed in amber. Due to the remarkable preservative power of being embalmed in amber, the tiny foot of this ancient lizard still shows the tiny “lamellae,” or sticky toe hairs, that to this day give modern geckos their unusual ability to cling to surfaces or run across a ceiling. Research programs around the world have tried to mimic this bizarre adhesive capability, with limited success. This gecko’s running days are over, however, as only the foot, toes and part of a tail are left in the stone. The rest might have become lunch for a small dinosaur or other predator during an ancient fight in the tropical forests of Myanmar during the Lower Cretaceous Period, from 97 million to 110 million years ago.