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Image details: US Army Conducts Air Assault Mission In East Baghdad served by picapp.com

Washington, D.C. - The Pentagon has announced it plans to send 39,000 soldiers to Iraq to replace troops scheduled to leave the theater — a move that should sustain current U.S. troop levels.

The United States has 155,000 troops in Iraq and is in the process of reducing that number to around Read the full story

The same day the Taliban claimed responsibility for a suicide attack that left 13 dead in northwest Pakistan over the weekend, another blast outside a mosque has killed at least three people. The attack came in the village of Dabar, also located in the northwest portion of Pakistan–a militancy-plagued area along Pakistan’s border with Afghanistan.

Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf’s Pakistan military (which has received significant funding from the Bush administration) has been unable - and unwilling - to take necessary action to prevent violence in the militant-dominated area that has been destabilized by U.S. military occupation in Afghanistan–which has forced the militants across the mountainous border into northwestern Pakistan. It is widely believed that militants like these played a significant role in the assassination of Musharraf’s political rival Benazir Bhutto on December 27, 2007.

Beirut - Heavily armed Hezbollah fighters seized control of much of western Beirut on Friday, patrolling the deserted streets in a show of force that underscored the militia’s refusal to back down in its escalating confrontation with the American-backed government.

Just a few short days after intense street combat broke out, Hezbollah allies also forced a government-allied satellite television station off the air and burned the offices Read the full story

Image details: Fears Grow For Future Of Citigroup served by picapp.com

New York - Citigroup Inc has announced it plans to shed $400 billion of assets within three years and boost revenue by up to 10 percent annually, in a bid to restore profitability after huge losses tied to the suffering mortgage and credit markets.

Vikram Pandit - chief executive of the largest U.S. bank - revealed the plans at a much-anticipated presentation to investors and analysts. He has faced growing demands to cut costs, shed poor-performing businesses and reinvigorate a stock price that has fallen by more than half in the last year.

Citigroup shares were down 60 cents, or 2.5 percent, at $23.70 in afternoon trading on the New York Stock Exchange.

“It’s definitely going to be a show-me story,” said Thane Bublitz, a senior analyst at Thrivent Financial for Lutherans in Appleton, Wisconsin.

Citigroup lost nearly $15 billion in the last two quarters, and has suffered more than $45 billion of write-downs and credit losses since last summer, as the housing slump deepened, subprime mortgages imploded and credit markets tightened. More jobs will be cut, on top of 13,200 announced this year.

Image details: Burma Copes With Aftermath Of Catatrophic Typhoon served by picapp.com
Yangon - Crowds of starving cyclone survivors stormed a few shops that opened yesterday in Myanmar’s devastated Irrawaddy delta, as the country’s military rulers kept a massive international aid effort on hold. More than 100,000 people may have been killed in the cyclone, said Shari Villarosa, the charge d’affaires of the US embassy in Myanmar. Read the full story

Senator Obama’s response

Four suicide bombers detonated car bombs in nearly simultaneous attacks on a small Kurdish sect in the Northern region of Iraq on Tuesday, killing 175 and injuring over 200. The attacks were the most deadly since Read the full story

A rare thing happened on Sunday, Pakistani President General Pervez Musharraf admitted to the Afghanistan President, and others in attendance at a tribal assembly in Kabul, that his country bears some of the responsibility for Read the full story

Congressional Democrats proposed a six-month compromise with the Bush administration today over the White House’s strong desire to expand government surveillance. According to house and senate democrats, the proposal would permit a secret court to issue a single broad order approving Read the full story