US POL: U.S. Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama has announced
Delaware Senator Joe Biden as his running mate for the November
elections.
Obama released the news on his Web site early today (Saturday) following widespread media speculation that Biden had been tapped for the role of vice president.
Obama said Biden would bring to the ticket his extensive foreign policy
experience, and record of collaborating across party lines, as well as
having a direct approach to get jobs done.
Biden, who was elected to the Senate in 1972 at the age of 29, is chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
PAKISTAN VIOLENCE: Pakistan's military says troops killed at least 35 pro-Taliban militants today (Saturday) in fierce fighting in the northwestern Swat Valley.
An army spokesman (Major Nasir Ali) said two soldiers were also killed.
The spokesman said troops launched the offensive shortly after a car
bomber rammed into a police station in Swat Valley today, killing at
least six policemen and wounding several others.
AFGHAN VIOLENCE: The U.S.-led coalition in Afghanistan says it has opened an
investigation into government allegations that troops had killed 76
civilians in an airstrike Friday.
In a news release today (Saturday), the coalition said all allegations of civilian deaths are taken very seriously.
Afghan President Hamid Karzai condemned the attack and said it had not been coordinated with local security officials.
GEORGIA: A top general says Russian forces will remain in parts of Georgia and
accuses Georgia of preparing a new wave of attacks in South Ossetia.
Russian General Anatoly Nogovitsyn spoke with reporters in Moscow today (Saturday).
He says the country's forces will continue to patrol the
Black Sea port city of Poti, as well as other areas that lie outside a
designated security zone for the breakaway region of South Ossetia. He
defended Russia's actions, saying they were in agreement with the terms
of a French-brokered cease-fire.
OLYMPICS-CHINA: Chinese police have jailed four more foreign pro-Tibet activists for 10 days ahead of the closing of the Beijing Olympics.
After deporting more than 40 foreigners for staging pro-Tibet
demonstrations in Beijing, Chinese police have begun sentencing them to
short periods of administrative detention.
Audio in Lao.
