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Night-time pictures of heavy shelling Georgian forces and South Ossetian separatists have been exchanging heavy fire just hours after agreeing to a ceasefire and Russian-mediated talks.Russian media reports said Georgia had launched a tank-led attack on the separatist stronghold of Tskhinvali, and airstrikes on rebel positions. Georgia says it aims to finish "a criminal regime" and restore order. At least 15 people are reported dead. Moscow called on the world community to work "to avert massive bloodshed". At Russia's request, members of the UN Security Council are holding a rare emergency session to discuss a response to the escalating violence....

VIENNA, Austria: Russian and Georgian officials at a leading European security organized sparred Friday over who is to blame for the bloodshed in the breakaway Georgian province of South Ossetia. Georgia's ambassador to the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, Victor Dolidze, accused Russia of "clear, open, military aggression from one OSCE country to another — its neighbor, unfortunately."But Vladimir Voronkov, Russia's top delegate to the Vienna-based body, denied any Russian military involvement, saying that just 500 Russian peacekeepers were in the province. "I can't speak about any Russian forces present: This is a very obvious trick of the Georgian side to...

Link only.

TBILISI, Georgia - Georgian 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. A Russian official denied the bombing. But Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said the Georgian attack will draw retaliation and the Defense Ministry pledged to protect South Ossetians, most of whom have Russian citizenship. An Associated Press reporter saw tanks and other heavy weapons concentrating on the Russian side of the border with South Ossetia and villagers were fleeing into Russia. "I saw...

uh oh bigtime

Russian television Friday showed a convoy of Russian tanks and said they were heading into the breakaway Georgian region of South Ossetia as escalating tensions over the region threatened to boil into full blown conflict.

TBILISI, Aug 8 (Reuters) - Russian jets bombed the Vaziani military airbase outside the Georgian capital Tbilisi on Friday, a senior Georgian security official told Reuters. "No one was wounded but some buildings have been destroyed," said Kakha Lamaia. The airbase is some 25 kilometres (15 miles) from Tbilisi. "They have declared war against us," said Lamaia.

Mighty Russia, population 150m, and tiny Georgia, population 4.6m, its former colony and now fiercely independent neighbour, are in terrible danger of blundering into a bloody and pointless conflict in the Caucasus. It would sorely damage relations between Moscow, the European Union and the US. It could also destabilise the rest of the Caucasus region. Washington and Brussels can urge restraint, but the only country that can stop the nonsense is Russia itself. The immediate cause of the conflict is a tug-of-war over the secessionist region of South Ossetia, which has been trying to break away from Georgia since the...

Here are numerous pictures from various online Russian and Georgian news outlest of the conflict in Georgia where Russia has now intevened on the ground and in the air and invaded Georgia over the Ossetian Seperatists. Russian tanks and vehicles moving toward and into Georgia Russian aircraft attackintg Georgia positions Georgian troops movingn toward the fighting Burniing Georgian Armor Georgian forces engaging seperatists

08/08/08What a cosmic date! What is the significance of 8/8/8 as applied to conspiratorial 2012 Armageddon. It's got to be something bad right? The new moon falls on August 8, 2008 and it's the beginning of the Olympics in Peking (year of the RAT). Anyone making plans to dig in?

WASHINGTON - Though Americans are increasingly pessimistic about the war in Iraq, the Pentagon said Tuesday it is having success enlisting new troops. The Navy and Air Force met their recruiting goals last month while the Army and Marine Corps exceeded theirs, the Defense Department announced. The Army, which is bearing the brunt of the work in Iraq, did the best. It signed up 6,485 new recruits in November compared with its target of 6,150 — meaning 105 percent of its goal. All the services turned in similar performances in October as well, meaning they so far are meeting their...

Now, I got one more thing on this Social Security business. Apparently some people misunderstood what I said when recently discussing the program. I never said that the first recipients didn't get any benefits. What I said was the first recipients didn't pay into the system or very much. The first recipients of Social Security were pretty much near retirement age or were at retirement age when FDR introduced the program. They were the real, true beneficiaries of this program. That's when it took 16 workers to pay the taxes for those people that had not put anything in the...