Wednesday, December 19 in the news....
- Russia wants more concrete reasons from Washington as to why it plans to build an anti-missile system in Poland and the Czech Republic, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Tuesday. A spokesman for the Bush Administration responded, "So we can eventually beat you in a war by rendering your nuclear arsenal ineffective on the US mainland, you can take out a few cities in Europe sure, that is a first line of defense, not as big a deal, we don't care." The spokesman then tried to retract his statement, "Oh I wasn't supposed to say that, I thought I was working for a Texan straight talker but no, I think I'm gonna get sacked now, dammit."
- Taliban militants killed 15 Afghan guards working for a private U.S. security firm in an ambush in the west of the country on Tuesday, the provincial governor said. Violence has surged in Afghanistan over the last year, up around 25 percent from 2006, with neither the Taliban insurgents, nor the Afghan government and Western troops gaining any significant advantage. With 6 days to go, Afghanistan is not looking very Christmassy.
