Gwinnett Daily Post

Poland hails US soldiers, missile battery

MORAG, Poland -- Polish and U.S. officials hailed the arrival in Poland of an American Patriot missile battery, saying Wednesday that the hardware and soldiers close to the Russian border enhance Polish security but pose no threat to Russia.

The Patriot battery arrived Sunday at a base in Morag, a town in northeastern Poland 37 miles (60 kilometers) from Russia's westernmost point, the Kaliningrad exclave.

Russia's Foreign Ministry said Wednesday that the military activity on its doorstep does not promote security or ''develop a relationship of trust and predictability in the region.''

Britain offers info on nukes

LONDON -- Britain offered its first public accounting of its nuclear arsenal Wednesday, disclosing that it has a stockpile of 225 warheads in a move that offers transparency to non-nuclear states in hope of winning stricter global controls on the spread of atomic weapons.

The announcement, made without fanfare in the House of Commons, follows the Obama administration's disclosure that the United States has stockpiled 5,113 nuclear warheads and ''several thousand'' more retired warheads awaiting the junk pile -- the first public description of the secretive arsenal born in the Cold War and now shrinking.

Blast in Russia kills 3, hurts 13

ROSTOV-ON-DON, Russia -- Explosives placed in a bag under a tree in the center of a southern Russian city blew up Wednesday, killing at least three people and injuring at least 13, officials said.

The blast bore the hallmarks of terrorist attacks that plague Russia's North Caucasus region, though the city of Stavropol rarely suffers the separatist-related violence that pervades Chechnya and other bordering provinces.

Israel to stop Gaza flotilla

JERUSALEM -- Israel's navy will stop a flotilla heading for Gaza with 10,000 tons of supplies and pro-Palestinian activists intent on breaking a blockade of Gaza, officials said Wednesday, in the first definitive Israeli pledge to stop the boats.

The officials said if the flotilla of eight ships does not turn back, the boats will be hauled to an Israeli port, the activists sent back to their countries and the supplies transferred to Gaza by land.