World
The US and Poland signed a deal Wednesday to station elements of a US missile-defense shield on Polish soil, a move certain to aggravate Russian-Western tensions over Moscow's intervention in Georgia. The site in Poland of 10 interceptor rockets will form part of a global system Washington is assembling to shoot down ballistic missiles it believes could be launched by "rogue" states or militant groups like Al Qaeda. Above, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Poland's Foreign Minister Radek Sikorski shake hands after inking the pact in Warsaw.
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French President Nicolas Sarkozy has no regrets about sending 700 more troops to Afghanistan this year, he told French troops at a base near Kabul Wednesday after 10 French soldiers were killed earlier this week when ambushed by Taliban insurgents. The attack resulted in the biggest single loss for foreign forces in Afghan combat since 2001.
Armed pirates seized a Malaysian palm-oil tanker with 39 crew off the coast of Somalia, the fourth hijacking in a month, the International Maritime Bureau said Wednesday. Once the ship enters Somali waters, pirates are expected to demand ransom for the release of the vessel and the crew.
About 40 Russian military trucks crossed over the border into Russia from Georgia on Wednesday, but there was no sign of Russian armor exiting the Georgian breakaway province of South Ossetia. The Red Cross said it is sending workers to the South Ossetian capital of Tskhinvali for the first time since the brief Russian-Georgian conflict broke out earlier this month, Above, South Ossetians waited to receive gas in Tskhinvali.
