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Pakistan claims 50 Taliban slain in raids

SWAT VALLEY, Pakistan, Aug. 24 (UPI) -- Pakistani soldiers, responding to an earlier powerful suicide bomb blast, pounded Taliban positions in the Swat Valley, killing 50 militants, officials say.

The initial blast shook the village of Charbagh Saturday when an explosives-laden jeep rammed into the local police station, killing four policemen and injuring 20 others. The government responded, killing with the Taliban's top commanders along with foreign fighters in the restive North West Frontier province region, Pakistan Dawn reported Sunday.

The offensive left 10 army soldiers dead and seven others injured, officials said. An army spokesman told the newspaper that several militant hideouts, including the Taliban's command and control center in the village of Kabal, were destroyed. He vowed to continue the operation until the government's writ is restored in the lawless valley.

Taliban Spokesman Muslim Khan told Dawn the militant group had carried out the Charbagh suicide attack in reaction to the killing of 14 militants in Doaba, Hangu.

"It is only a beginning and more attacks will come if the operation is not stopped in Swat," he said.

Four killed in Baghdad bombings

BAGHDAD, Aug. 24 (UPI) -- Four people, including an Iraqi police officer, were killed Sunday by a pair of roadside bombs in central Baghdad, officials said.

The bombs went off in quick succession in the al-Nahdha commercial district, Iraqi interior ministry officials told CNN. A total of 14 people, including two police officers, were injured by the blasts.

People helping those hurt by the first bomb became victims of the second explosion, which caused more injuries than the initial blast, the broadcaster said.

Texas court denies DeLay case appeal

AUSTIN, Texas, Aug. 24 (UPI) -- A Texas state appellate court says indictments against two associates of former U.S. House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, R-Texas, are valid and should stand.

James Ellis and John Colyando, who formerly worked for a political action committee known as Texans for a Republican Majority, were indicted for money laundering resulting from DeLay's efforts to raise corporate contributions for Republican candidates for the 2002 election, the Houston Chronicle reported.

They had challenged the constitutionality of the state's money laundering statutes, but the appeals court ruled the law was not vague or overbroad, the newspaper said.

"The challenged statutes give constitutionally adequate notice of the conduct prohibited and sufficiently determine guidelines for law enforcement," Third Court of Appeals Justice Alan Waldrop wrote in a 46-page opinion issued late Friday.

Ellis, Colyando and DeLay are accused of conspiring to funnel $190,000 in corporate cash illegally to seven Texas House of Representatives candidates in the 2002 elections. The three contend the transactions done by Texans for a Republican Majority were completely legal.

U.S. Navy relief aid ship reaches Georgia

BATUMI, Georgia, Aug. 24 (UPI) -- The U.S. Navy says it has joined humanitarian efforts to help Georgian refugees by sending a destroyer laden with 155,000 pounds of supplies.

Officials with the Pentagon's European Command Sunday reported the USS McFaul arrived in Batumi, Georgia, with 82 pallets of hygiene items, baby food and care supplies, bottled water and milk donated by the U.S. Agency for International Development.

"Our job was to get the supplies to Georgia as quickly as possible," Navy Capt. John Moore said. "The entire crew of this ship realizes the significance of their efforts in helping to provide comfort to the people of Georgia."

Military officials also said two U.S. Coast Guard cutters have loaded humanitarian supplies destined for Georgia. One left Crete Thursday with more than 76,000 pounds of relief supplies and is to arrive in Georgia within a week.

The officials said tens of thousands of hygiene kits have been flown into Georgia by U.S. Navy aircraft in the wake of its conflict with Russia.

U.S. exports endangered by world downturn

WASHINGTON, Aug. 24 (UPI) -- Exports, one of the few bright spots in the struggling U.S. economy, could take a hit as other countries fall victim to a worldwide downturn, analysts say.

Globalization has meant woes as well as prosperity spread quickly among all the advanced economies, and U.S. companies relying on continued robust growth in the rest of the world to offset domestic weakness may be running out of time, The New York Times reported Sunday.

High energy prices, crippled financial systems and suffering trading partners have choked growth in many major economies, the International Monetary Fund has determined, saying it expects global growth to slow substantially through the end of this year. It predicts world growth to fall to 4.1 percent from 5 percent in 2007, the newspaper said.

That means the United States' own problems have a good chance of intensifying this fall as its presidential election moves into the final phase.

Distress is becoming apparent even in China and India, where the rate of explosive growth is tapering off.

Analysts said that may endanger foreign investment dollars coming in to inject capital into struggling U.S. financial firms and mortgage companies such as Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.