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WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President George W. Bush on Wednesday ordered the Pentagon to deliver aid and sent Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to visit Georgia in the strongest U.S. show of support for its ally since a conflict with Russia erupted.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Army plans to cut billions of dollars from the Abrams tank built by General Dynamics Corp and other heavier vehicle programs to fund its Future Combat Systems (FCS) modernization effort and other technologies, sources familiar with Army plans said.

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - The United Nations pledged on Wednesday to hasten its cautious steps in helping Iraq rebuild, five years after a devastating bomb pushed it to pull foreign staff out of the country.

NOUAKCHOTT (Reuters) - Mauritania's military rulers canvassed political parties and neighboring states on Wednesday to garner support for a new government to lead the country to presidential elections after last week's coup.

WANA, Pakistan (Reuters) - At least nine militants were killed in a missile strike on their training camp in Pakistan's South Waziristan region, near the Afghan border, security officials and residents said on Wednesday.

HOUSTON (Reuters) - The chairman of the Arkansas Democratic Party, Bill Gwatney, died in a hospital after being shot by a lone gunman at the party's headquarters in Little Rock, officials said on Wednesday.

ASUNCION (Reuters) - A former Roman Catholic bishop who once led anti-government marches will take over as president of Paraguay on Friday, promising to end deeply ingrained corruption and give land to the poor.

TBILISI (Reuters) - President George W. Bush's pledge to send aid to Georgia means that the U.S. military will take control of the ex-Soviet state's ports and airports, Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili said on Wednesday.

ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - Pressure mounted on Pakistan's President Pervez Musharraf on Wednesday to resign or face impeachment but aides rejected media speculation he was about to step down.

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Bombs in four parts of northern Iraq killed at least six people on Wednesday, and Iraqi forces said they expected more attacks as they pursue Sunni Arab militants in the volatile north.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President George W. Bush told Russia on Wednesday to end the crisis with Georgia and ordered Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to Tbilisi to show "unwavering" U.S. support for the former Soviet republic.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Barack Obama sees an overhaul of Wall Street regulations as crucial to restoring trust in U.S. markets and could move early on it if he wins the White House, according to a senior adviser.

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - European Union foreign ministers agreed in principle on Wednesday to send monitors to supervise a French-brokered ceasefire between Russia and Georgia in the breakaway Georgian region of South Ossetia.

RAMALLAH, West Bank (Reuters) - Palestinians gave their national poet Mahmoud Darwish what amounted to a state funeral in the West Bank city of Ramallah on Wednesday, mourning a man who articulated their sense of loss, exile and defiance.

MADRID (Reuters) - Spanish basketball player Jose Calderon rejected international media accusations on Wednesday that slit-eyed gestures by his team at the Beijing Olympics were racist and said he had great respect for Asian people.

HAVANA (Reuters) - Former Cuban leader Fidel Castro turned 82 on Wednesday, still a world and national figure even though he has not been seen in public since falling ill two years ago.

PARIS (Reuters) - French parliamentarians who met the Dalai Lama on Wednesday quoted him as saying there was a risk China would accelerate the settlement of one million Han Chinese in Tibet immediately after the Olympic Games.

KAMPALA (Reuters) - Ugandan authorities have launched a mass circumcision drive with the hope it will reduce HIV/AIDS rates in the east African country.

KABUL (Reuters) - Suspected Taliban insurgents killed three female aid workers and their Afghan driver in an ambush on Wednesday, officials said, the bloodiest single attack on foreign humanitarian workers in Afghanistan in recent years.

KHARTOUM (Reuters) - Sudan's army has begun a massive operation to wipe out rebel bases in Darfur's far north, two Darfur rebel factions said on Wednesday.