Thursday's Newswrap

Today's top story is still the situation in Georgia. Varying accounts out of Gori today, the BBC is reporting that Russia is preparing to withdraw, the Guardian says it is sending more troops into the city, and Al Jazeera reports that explosions have been heard on the edge of Gori. Reports of looting and robberies in Russian controlled Georgia continue to grow with two Israeli journalists being robbed by armed Russian soldiers. Russia has answered G.W.'s demand for it to "respect Georgia's terretorial integrety" with a resounding 'no'.

In Africa, the Southern African Development Community (SADC) is preparing to meet, with much of its agenda dominated by Zimbabwe. This comes as Morgan Tsvangirai has his passport revoked to prevent him from travelling to South Africa. In Canada, Bush clone Stephen Harper (Canada's Prime Minister), has warned against carbon taxes that would "kill prosperity", apparently preventing the planet from being killed does not rank highly among Harper's priorities. In the US Presidential election, a Conservative author intends to destroy Barack Obama in the same way he tried to destroy John Kerry in 2004. Also in America, the chair of the Arkansas Democratic party has tragically been killed by a gunman. Reports suggest that the shooter had recently lost his job, although it is unknown if this factored into his motive.

In business, BA and AA are planning a merger that's not. British Airways and American Airlines are planning to tie up many of their operations. Currently, two thirds of passengers flying between the US and the UK fly with either BA or American. BA is also in discussions to merge with Spanish airline Iberia. On the same day, Scandanavian airline SAS has announced yet more job cuts. On the economic front, the Eurozone has seen a net decline in growth of 0.2%. More worryingly, Europe's biggest economy, Germany, has seen its economy decline by 0.5%. Also in business, Wal-Mart's profits have increased 17% in the last three months from $2.95-billion for the same quarter last year, to $3.45-billion this year.

In Pakistan, Pervez Musharraf is expected to resign in the next few days according to the New York Times. It comes after the new Prime Minister effectively refussed to reconcile. In odd news today, the US census bureau has today revealed that white Americans will be a minority by 2042 and Norway's souvenier market makes for interesting reading.. In depth, PRI's The World looks at China's urbanisation. Also in China, the Beijing Olympic organising committee deputy had a spectacular outburst during a press conference according to the Sydney Morning Herald.

Sad news, three coalition troops have been killed in Afghanistan. Details of their nationalities have not yet been released. USA Today says that 6 US Navy saloirs have been accused of abusing detainees in Iraq. The artist that created the controversial cartoons that depictied the Prophet Muhammad in various questionnable situations, says he is ready to face trial in Jordan, but fears he will not get a free trial.

Finally, in the UK A-level results are published today, good luck to all. And the UN says that British libel laws breach human rights.

Current Olympic rankings:

1. China - 22 Gold, 8 Silver, 5 Bronze, 35 total
   
2. USA - 10 Gold, 9 Silver, 15 bronze, 34 total
   
3. Korea (South) - 6 Gold, 7 Silver, 3 Bronze, 16 total
   
4. Italy - 6 Gold, 4 Silver, 3 Bronze, 13 total
   
5. Germany - 6 Gold, 2 Silver, 3 Bronze, 11 total
   
6. Australia - 5 Gold, 4 Silver, 7 Bronze, 16 total
   
7. Japan - 5 Gold, 3 Silver, 3 Bronze, 11 total
   
8. Russia - 3 Gold, 8 Silver, 3 Bronze, 14 total
   
9. France - 2 Gold, 7 Silver, 6 Bronze, 15 total
   
10. Great Britain - 2 Gold, 2 Silver, 3 Bronze, 7 total

Appologies that I'm so late posting today, my computer decided to play up for a while!