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SPORTS

 
‘Invasion of Georgia’ a ‘3 a.m. moment’


Ben Smith
When the North Caucasus slid into war Thursday night, it presented John McCain and Barack Obama with a true “3 a.m. moment,” and their responses to the crisis suggested dramatic differences in how each candidate, as president, would lead America in moments of international crisis. While Obama offered a response largely in line with statements issued by democratically elected world leaders, including President Bush, first calling on both sides to negotiate, John McCain took a remarkably — and uniquely — more aggressive stance, siding clearly with Georgia’s pro-Western leaders and placing the blame for the conflict entirely on Russia. The abrupt crisis in an obscure hotspot had the features of the real foreign policy situations presidents face — not the clean hypotheticals of candidates’ white papers and debating points. ...MORE


Russia orders halt to war in Georgia

By Michael Stott and Margarita Antidze
MOSCOW/TBILISI (Reuters) - Russian President Dmitry Medvedev ordered a halt to military operations in Georgia on Tuesday, after five days of fighting and just before French President Nicolas Sarkozy was to hold peace talks in Moscow. A Kremlin spokesman confirmed Russian news agency reports that Medvedev had issued instructions...MORE

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A Georgian man stands among ruins in front of his damaged home in Gori

. Dozens of Russian warplanes staged new raids in Georgia which in turn pounded the Russian-controlled capital of breakaway South Ossetia, the two sides said, as European leaders intensified efforts to head off all-out war. (AFP/Dimitar Dilkoff)





















GOP's Pawlenty praises Obama's positive message

By FREDERIC J. FROMMER, Associated Press Writer
ARLINGTON, Va.
Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty, often mentioned as a possible running mate for Republican presidential candidate John McCain, said Wednesday GOP candidates would do well to adopt a positive tone like that of McCain's Democratic rival Barack Obama. "Say what you will about Barack Obama," the Minnesota Republican told a conservative group, "people gravitate when you have something positive to say." He added that McCain has been positive as well. "People want to follow hopeful, optimistic, civil, decent leaders," Pawlenty said in a speech to GOPAC, which helps recruit Republican candidates. "They don't want to follow some negative, scornful person." Ronald Reagan still offers important lessons for today's Republican Party, Pawlenty said, because the former president was civil, optimistic, pragmatic and a good communicator. "He actually had some ideas," Pawlenty said, adding that the Republican idea factory has seemed "a little stagnant in recent years." Pawlenty, 47, said he came of age during President Reagan's tenure in the 1980s, but acknowledged the Republican icon is ancient history to young people. "If you're under 40, that was a long time ago, man," he said to laughter. The party needs to update its message to appeal to voters who want new ideas and government results and to counter the perception that Republicans are "not for the working person," Pawlenty said. He advocated policies like better training and performance pay for teachers, online college education opportunities, and reworking health insurance to reward providers that show good results and save money. Pawlenty shied away from talking about joining McCain on the ticket. ....MORE

'Blood oil' dripping from Nigeria

BBC News
Under cover of night dozens of barges queue up to dock at a jetty in a creek somewhere in Nigeria's oil-rich Niger Delta. Their holds are filled with stolen oil running from valves illegally installed into a pipeline. ...MORE
NEWS
POLITICS OF CHANGE
---- WEEKLY HEADLINE NEWS ---AUGUST 8, 2008 ---China strides onto Olympic stage --- BEIJING (Reuters) - American swimmer Michael Phelps became the most successful Olympian of all time by winning two more Beijing gold medals on Wednesday to take his career tally to an unprecedented 11 victories. The mighty Phelps overtook an elite group including Mark Spitz and Carl Lewis who had won nine golds by breaking his own world record in the men's 200 meters butterfly. BEIJING - Once-reclusive China commandeered the world stage Friday, celebrating its first-time role as Olympic host with a stunning display of pyrotechnics and pageantry — topped by the unworldly sight of a flying gymnast, traversing the heights of the stadium to light the flame and begin the Summer Games. ..... WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Former U.S. Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards has admitted to having had an extramarital affair with a woman he met in a New York City bar in 2006, ABC News reported on Friday ..... Shiite militia to become religious, cultural body --- BAGHDAD - Anti-U.S. Shiite leader Muqtada al-Sadr ordered most of his militiamen Friday to lay down their arms, and his spokesman said the young cleric might call off all resistance if the Americans accept a timetable to leave Iraq. In the north, a car bomb exploded Friday evening in a crowded market in the city of Tal Afar, killing at least 21 people and wounding 72, police said. Tensions have been rising among ethnic groups throughout the north because of a dispute over control of the oil-rich area around Kirkuk — claimed by Arabs, Turkomen and Kurds ..... WASHINGTON - Vice President Dick Cheney, a conservative favorite , will join President Bush in addressing delegates on the opening night of the Republican National Convention, the White House said Friday. ..... NBA champion Celtics to open season against Cavaliers --- NEW YORK (AFP) - American Greg Oden's debut and the Boston Celtics banner raising ceremony will highlight the opening day of the 2008-09 National Basketball Association season, the league announced Wednesday .... Clinton says she wants Obama to win White House --- LAS VEGAS - Hillary Rodham Clinton told an exuberant crowd Friday she wants Barack Obama to win the White House, even though he dashed her own presidential dreams — and she wants her supporters to vote that way, too "Anyone who voted for me or caucused for me has so much more in common with Sen. Obama than Sen. McCain," Clinton told her cheering audience in the Las Vegas suburb of Henderson. "Remember who we were fighting for in my campaign." ..... WEEKLY HEADLINE NEWS AUGUST 8 2008 ......COLUMBUS, OHIO .....----McCain campaign to return 50K in donations -- AP - John McCain's campaign said Thursday it is returning $50,000 in contributions solicited by a foreign citizen. The move follows the disclosure that the money was being raised by a Jordanian man who is a business partner of prominent Florida Republican Harry Sargeant III, who has collected hundreds of thousands of dollars for McCain .... CHICAGO - Party officials say former President Clinton will deliver a speech on the third night of the Democratic National Convention before an address by the as-yet-to-be-named running mate for Barack Obama. .... BEIJING (Reuters) - President George W. Bush wasted no time on Friday raising the touchy issues of religious freedom and free speech in China, hours before he was to attend the opening ceremonies of the 2008 Summer Olympics. .... White supremacists hope Obama win prompts backlash -- AP - They're not exactly rooting for Barack Obama, but prominent white supremacists anticipate a boost to their cause if he becomes the first black president. His election, they say, would trigger a backlash — whites rising up, a revolution of sorts — that they think is long overdue. .... One of the Democratic Party's leading electoral street fighters, New York Sen. Chuck Schumer, said that Barack Obama should respond to John McCain's personal attacks with an equally personal slap. ..... McCain campaign to return money raised by foreign national -- John McCain's campaign is returning about $50,000 raised by a Jordanian man, some of which came from individuals who were not even supporters of the GOP nominee. ..... MIAMI - A man who authorities said was keeping weapons and military-style gear in his hotel room and car appeared in court Thursday on charges he threatened to assassinate Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama. Raymond Hunter Geisel, 22, was arrested by the Secret Service on Saturday in Miami and was ordered held at Miami's downtown detention center without bail Thursday by a federal magistrate. ..... TBILISI, Georgia - Government troops launched a major military offensive Friday to regain control over the breakaway province of South Ossetia and the president accused Russia, which has close ties to the separatists, of bombing Georgian territory. .... BAGHDAD - Iraq and the U.S. are near an agreement on all American combat troops leaving Iraq by October 2010, with the last soldiers out three years after that, two Iraqi officials told The Associated Press on Thursday. U.S. officials, however, insisted no dates had been agreed---WEEKLY HEADLINE NEWS----U.S. athletes wear face masks - - Aug 5 - As athletes from all over the world arrive in Beijing ahead of the start of the Olympics some members of the U.S. cycling team arrive wearing anti-pollution masks. A U.S. team official said members of the cycling squad were wearing the respiratory masks but declined further comment. .... Obama shifts on energy issues - - Aug 4 - Barack Obama proposed tapping the strategic oil reserves to help lower gas prices, a reversal of a stance he made just weeks ago. The emergency reserve created in the 1970s holds about 700 million barrels of crude stored in Texas and Louisiana. .... Morgan Freeman injured in accident - - Oscar Winner Morgan Freeman is critically ill in hospital after the car he was driving overturned several times. Morgan Freeman was born in Memphis but spent much of his childhood in Mississippi and has opened a music club in the state. .... Bush faces S. Korea balancing act - - President B