WARSAW, Poland (Reuters) -- Poland government decided on Tuesday to withdraw its troops from Iraq at the end of 2005, making official an earlier proposal, Defense Minister Jerzy Szmajdzinski said.

"At the time of the expiry of the Security Council's mandate -- meaning at the end of 2005 -- the operations of the Polish stabilization mission should be finished," Szmajdzinski told a news conference after a cabinet meeting.

Poland, a close ally of Washington in Europe and one of the few supporters of its war to topple Saddam Hussein in 2003, has about 1,700 soldiers in south-central Iraq, where it runs a multi-national stabilization force.

Szmajdzinski said Prime Minister Marek Belka's government, which opinion polls show losing power in elections due by October, would not commit Polish troops to any other missions.

"Belka's government will surely not make any new military commitments. We are carrying out an exit strategy from Iraq."

This next article just makes me feel all safe warm and fuzzy (NOT) about the Centers for Disease keeping ugly things from getting to us!  Oh GEE folks, it was just a little old boo boo sending out hundreds, if not thousands of samples of one of the deadliest flu virus's ever known to mankind...wondering here WHO got those samples, and what just one Terrorist Organization would pay to get their hands on one of those samples...what if just ONE of those who got a sample has that SAME THOUGHT, and sees there chance to get rich.

Labs told to destroy killer flu virus

Wednesday, April 13, 2005 Posted: 1310 GMT (2110 HKT)

http://edition.cnn.com/2005/HEALTH/04/13/flu.recall/index.html

(CNN) -- The World Health Organization urged laboratories Tuesday to destroy samples of a flu virus sent out for testing purposes after a Canadian lab identified the virus as a strain that triggered the 1957 Asian flu pandemic.

A spokesman for the organization that distributed the virus, known as influenza A/H2N2, said it came from a vendor and its distribution was clearly a mistake.

"We under no circumstances would ever vouch for an H2N2 to be sent out," said Dr. Jared Schwartz, a spokesman for the College of American Pathologists.

Schwartz said records indicate the vendor knew it was sending a flu virus but apparently did not realize it was the deadly Asian flu strain.

The WHO and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said there is little risk to the public from the virus, which was distributed to laboratories to test their abilities to identify samples.

NEWS FLASH.....YOUR HARD EARNED TAXES AT WORK....seriously Mr Bush, if you are too STUPID to download your own IPod tunes, then you have NO BUSINESS owning one, and this tax payer finds it REPUGNANT that you are using OUR TAXES to have and assistant download your forking playlist!  IMPEACHMENT...Misappropriation of government funds. Would also be interesting to find out of all those downloaded MP3's ARE LEGAL?  By the way, in this photograph, doesn't Bush look like one of the SHORT YELLOW BUS CROWD?

Bush's iPod reveals music tastes

Ain't no Fortunate Son, but Bush doesn't listen only to supporters George W Bush is a fan of country music and classic rock, but he also likes "a little bit of hard core and honky tonk", his iPod playlist suggests. His 250 songs include country greats George Jones and Alan Jackson, but also My Sharona by the Knack. Mr Bush has an aide download music for him and listens to it while mountain biking, the New York Times reported. Rolling Stone journalist Joe Levy called the playlist "feel-good music. The Sex Pistols it's not." "It's safe, it's reliable, it's loving," Mr Levy said. "One thing that's interesting is that the president likes artists who don't like him," he added.