MOSCOW, Aug. 12 (UPI) -- Russian President Dmitri Medvedev said he ordered Russian military operations in Georgia to end but troops can still fire on enemies in South Ossetia.

In announcing the end to the assault Tuesday, Medvedev said Russia achieved its military goals, The New York Times (NYSE:NYT) reported.

The Russian push into Georgia Monday, briefly seizing a Georgian military base and taking posts close to Gori, Georgia, raising fears of a full-scale invasion or an attempt to remove Mikheil Saakashvili, Georgia's pro-Western president.

Foreign policy experts said one reason Moscow responded forcefully to Georgia's attempt to take back South Ossetia is that the United States and Europe had been promoting democracy in countries surrounding Russia, such as supporting Kosovo's bid for independence.

Also, Russian officials are angered by U.S. plans to install a missile defense system in Poland and the Czech Republic and by U.S. encouragement of Georgia and Ukraine to join NATO.

"The Russians feel they have been treated like dirt by the world for the last 20 years. Now, they're back," George Friedman, chief executive of Stratfor, a geopolitical risk analysis firm, told the Times.

Also Monday, people demonstrated in Riga, Latvia; Tallinn, Estonia; and Vilnius, Lithuania, to press the West to adopt a tougher stance toward Moscow.

Blast kills 12 in Pakistan

PESHAWAR , Pakistan, Aug. 12 (UPI) -- A bomb, apparently targeting a Pakistani air force bus, went off Tuesday in Peshawar, killing at least 12 people, police said.

The explosion in the capital of the violence-hit North-West Frontier Province wounded another 15 people, CNN reported.

The bomb, hidden in car parked under a bridge, exploded as the air force bus carrying supplies reached a crossing, Pakistani air force Capt. Tariq Mahmoud said, the report said.

Those killed and wounded included both bus passengers and civilians on the street, a television reporter told CNN.

The province, near the border with Afghanistan, has been wracked by violence as the Pakistani military tries to regain control of the region from the Taliban.

The militants have vowed to step up their violence if the military operations don't cease.

Philippine forces fight with rebel group

MANILA, Philippines, Aug. 12 (UPI) -- Fighting Tuesday between Philippine troops and rebel fighters persisted in parts of Mindanao and could jeopardize peace talks, a rebel leader said.

Mohagher Iqbal, chief negotiator for the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, told GMANews.TV that if the weeklong fighting in North Cotabato expands to other areas, peace talks with the Arroyo government will be at risk.

Security forces shelled rebel positions in the towns of Aleosan, Pikit and Midsayap. Iqbal said he had no immediate reports of casualties but civilians "are suffering because of this fighting."

Authorities last week gave rebels a 24-hour ultimatum to vacate villages they occupied. Philippine military leader Gen. Alexander Yano said the offensive was to drive rebel forces from more than a dozen villages in the province, GMANews.TV said.

A senior MILF leader said rebels agreed to withdraw but government militias were attacking them.

Erratic fighting between government troops and the MILF has occurred in Mindanao since Manila signed an agreement with the country's largest Muslim rebel group.

Peace negotiators last month reached a deal on ancestral domain, critical for the MILF. But after politicians and lawmakers filed a petition opposing the deal, the Supreme Court stopped the signing of the accord that would eventually grant Muslims a homeland in Mindanao.

Judge denies Georgia airport gun request

ATLANTA, Aug. 12 (UPI) -- A U.S judge says he won't allow gun rights supporters to carry concealed weapons in Atlanta's busy international airport.

U.S. District Court Judge Marvin Shoob ruled Monday against a request by the group GeorgiaCarry.org and a Georgia state legislator to temporarily allow the public to carry concealed guns in the non-secure parts of Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport while the details of how a new state gun rights law affects the airport are sorted out, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported.

Shoob denied the group's request for a temporary injunction partly because there is substantial doubt the group will prevail in its main lawsuit against the airport, which it accuses of trying to thwart the intent of a new state law allowing concealed weapons to be carried in state parks, restaurants that serve alcohol and on mass transit, the newspaper said.

"There is a significant question as to whether permitting the carrying of guns in the airport is a serious threat to the public safety and welfare," Shoob said.

Airport officials argued that allowing guns in non-secure areas such as lobbies and ticketing areas crates the danger of panic and "a stampede" from nervous travelers if a gun were to go off.

Poll: U.S.gas price worries have ebbed

PRINCETON, N.J., Aug. 12 (UPI) -- Gas price worries have ebbed considerably among U.S. adults in the past month, Gallup researchers said.

In a survey in July, 5 percent of the respondents indicated a belief that gas prices would fall by the year's end, Gallup said Tuesday. This month, 37 percent of the respondents indicated the same thing, Gallup said.

Simultaneously, the number of those indicating gas prices would stay the same jumped from 6 percent to 21 percent.

Gallup said the poll of 1,009 U.S. adults taken Aug. 7-10 showed, "Republicans are a little more positive about gas prices than are Democrats and independents."

The overall switch reflects a slight turn in general feelings about the economy, Gallup said. In a poll taken in mid-July, 83 percent of those asked indicated negative views about the economy. In an Aug. 8-10 poll, that number had dropped to 73 percent, Gallup said.

The polls include a margin of error of 3 percentage points, Gallup said.