Today's News Update 6 September 2008

Update as of 0900 Eastern Time:

Bottom Line Up Front:
1. Hanna soaks the Carolinas, Ike is still coming.
2. Medvedev rattling the saber again.
3. US could withdraw nuclear deal from Russia.
4. Zardari elected new Pakistani President.

From Fox News:

Tropical Storm Hanna buffeted pre-dawn tourist beaches on the North-South Carolina border Saturday at the start of a run up the Eastern Seaboard forecast to dump heavy weekend rain from Virginia to New England.

Emergency officials were already looking past Hanna to powerful Hurricane Ike, several hundred miles out in the Atlantic. Ike, packing Category 3 hurricane winds of near 115 mph, could approach southern Florida by Monday as Hanna spins away from Canada over the North Atlantic.

The National Hurricane Center in Miami said Hanna's center came on land about 3:20 a.m. near the state line with top sustained winds dropping to about 60 mph from near 70 mph while the storm was over water.

From CNN:

Tropical Storm Hanna was streaking up the Atlantic Coast Saturday morning after coming ashore at 3:20 a.m. near the North Carolina and South Carolina line.

Hanna caused a surge of 1 to 2 feet of water along the shore and was expected to deliver 4 to 6 inches of rain, with some areas getting more.

Flooding, wind damage and power outages were minor across the Carolinas, according to emergency officials.

"It's actually going fairly well, with some reports of minor flooding," said South Carolina Emergency Management spokesman Derrec Becker. Watch

About 10,000 South Carolina homes were without power, mostly in the Myrtle Beach area, Becker said. He also said 444 South Carolina residents were staying in 15 shelters.

In North Carolina, nearly 12,000 homes had no electricity, mostly in the counties near the site where Hanna touched down, said State Emergency Management spokesman Mark Van Sciver.

From Fox News:

President Dmitry Medvedev said Saturday the war with Georgia has shown the world that "Russia is a nation to be reckoned with" — his most aggressive comments to date on the conflict with Russia's southern neighbor.

Medvedev said the fighting in August was forced upon Russia and insisted that Russia had to act to save lives. He spoke at the opening of State Council, a high-level government body made up of governors and others.

"Russia will never allow anyone to infringe upon the lives and dignity of its citizens. Russia is a nation to be reckoned with from now on," Medvedev said.

"We have reached a moment of truth. It became a different world after Aug. 8. Let's call things as they should be called — because of this aggression, a real war took place, which took the lives of Russians, Ossetians and Georgians," he said.

The conflict over South Ossetia showcased Russia's resurgent military and economic clout and has presented the strongest challenge to the West since the end of the Cold War.

Russia considered many people in South Ossetia its citizens because it gave them passports even though the separatist territory was in Georgia.

From CNN:

The Bush administration is poised to withdraw an agreement with Russia on nuclear trade as punishment for Russia's military action last month against U.S. ally Georgia, a State Department source said Friday.

The pact, known as the 123 Agreement, would clear the way for more trade of nuclear goods, along with services and technology, between the United States and Russia. Both countries had accepted the agreement, but it is awaiting congressional approval.

But as early as next week President Bush could deep-freeze the agreement, withdrawing it from congressional deliberations, the source said.

Russia analyst Jon Wolfsthal at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington noted that the 123 Agreement has been having trouble winning approval on Capitol Hill and said, "I think they are making a virtue out of a necessity.

"It was unlikely Congress was going to approve the agreement this year," he said. "It was too tempting a target for the administration not to pull it back."

In general, Wolfsthal said, the administration needs to move carefully, signaling to Russia that its behavior in Georgia is unacceptable but that cooperation on mutual issues such as Iran and combating terrorism should continue.

From Fox News:

The widower of slain former leader Benazir Bhutto will succeed Pervez Musharraf as president of Pakistan after winning a landslide victory in Saturday's election.

Partial results announced by officials after separate votes in the federal and provincial assemblies show that Asif Ali Zardari won an overwhelming majority of the votes.

Pro-Zardari lawmakers, some in tears, shouted "Long live Bhutto!" as the results came in. The couple's two jubilant but tearful daughters, one carrying a portrait of their late mother, smiled and hugged friends in the gallery.

But Saturday also brought a brutal reminder of the threats to the nuclear-armed nation's stability when a suicide car bomber killed at least 13 people and wounded dozens in the northwestern city of Peshawar.

Zardari, a novice leader stained by past corruption allegations, takes over at a critical time for this volatile, nuclear-armed Muslim nation of more than 160 million.

Pakistan's economy is crumbling and Saturday's attack was the latest in a string of suicide bombings usually claimed by Islamic militants who have steadily gained strength since Pakistan joined the U.S. war on terrorism in 2001.

Washington is pressing Pakistan to eradicate Taliban and Al Qaeda havens near its border with Afghanistan. A U.S.-led ground attack said to have killed at least 15 in Pakistan Wednesday sparked outrage and embarrassed Zardari's party.

Additional Resources:

CNN on Zardari:

NY Times on Zardara:

NY Times on Rice trip to Libya:

More to follow:

God Bless America

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