Georgia

The cyber attack that brought down Twitter for several hours Thursday was aimed at a single blogger in the country of Georgia, according to Facebook, which was also targeted in the attack. Cyxymu, as the blogger is known online, uses his blog and accounts on several social media networks to lash out against Russia, which has waged battles with Georgia over disputed territory. "Yesterday's attack appears to be directed at an individual who has a presence on a number of sites," Facebook said in a statement.

Inspectors found several violations of good manufacturing practices in the Georgia peanut butter factory at the center of an investigation into a nationwide salmonella outbreak that has sickened hundreds of people, federal officials said Tuesday. The Food and Drug Administration said it completed its investigation into the outbreak it linked to the Peanut Corp. of America plant in Blakely, Ga. The agency is to make a report public today.

A federal appeals court threw out an agreement that Georgia reached with the Army Corps of Engineers for water rights to a major federal reservoir outside Atlanta, handing Alabama and Florida a victory in the states' long-standing water wars. The ruling comes amid tense negotiations among the states' governors over water sharing during a record drought. The 2003 agreement with the corps would give Georgia about a quarter of Lake Lanier's capacity over the coming decades, primarily to serve Atlanta.

Eddie "Iceberg" Chastain, a 385-pound wrestler with a shaved head and a red goatee, calls himself the Being of Inconceivable Horror. In the ring, he wields a fork -- just like his mentor, Abdullah the Butcher. He pummels his opponents with cross-face forearms, levels them with clotheslines and crushes them with avalanche splashes. But outside the ring he has begun to show a softer side. "You know, it's not actually my intent to hurt my opponent," he said in a telephone interview last week.

C. Barton Crattie, a Georgia land surveyor, did not expect to start a border war when he penned a newspaper article about a flawed 1818 survey that placed his state a mile below the Tennessee River. The mistake in calculating Georgia's northern corner, he figured, was just an odd historical footnote, an interesting digression for those who fret that the drought-stricken state will soon run out of water. "Unfortunately for . . .

The first Russian tanks rumbled past in the morning, witnesses said, startling the townspeople and then drifting away as casually as they had arrived. By afternoon, the tanks were back in a haze of smoke and dust. Russian soldiers lounged on top, sprawled in their fatigues, shutting down the roads out of the city. Russia and Georgia had signed a cease-fire agreement the night before, but it already seemed like an illusion.

The troubled suburban widow who was kidnapped by alleged courthouse shooter Brian Nichols took the witness stand in his murder trial Monday, facing the man she famously tamed three years ago with Bible verses, cunning and a helping of crystal meth. Ashley Smith Robinson, a former drug addict, told prosecutor Kellie Hill that she had once felt grateful to Nichols for letting her escape unharmed. Hill asked Robinson if she was still grateful. "No ma'am," Robinson said. "I am grateful to God."

The diners at Butch's Family Restaurant gave Republican Sen. Saxby Chambliss the warmest of welcomes when he stopped in recently. They smiled as he moved from table to table, shaking hands and asking after each of them with avuncular concern. A local pastor prayed for Chambliss, calling him a man who "stands for principles we believe in." "Aw, I'm getting a hug," said one middle-aged voter as she lunged toward the silver-haired lawmaker.

An Atlanta man who claimed the delusion that he was leading a "slave rebellion" had launched him on a courthouse shooting spree was found guilty of murder Friday. Jurors, who rejected Brian Nichols' insanity claim, on Monday will begin hearing evidence in the sentencing phase of the trial. They must decide whether Nichols, 36, should receive the death penalty or life in prison for the 2005 rampage that left four people dead -- including a judge, a court reporter and two law enforcement officers.

Mediators succeeded Wednesday in getting direct talks going between Russia and Georgia, pressing the two neighbors to resolve security and refugee issues from their August war. Johan Verbeke, special U.N. envoy for Georgia, said the sides had agreed on methods to demarcate borders and had begun work on security issues and the return of refugees. "I'd call this a quantum leap," Verbeke said. "All of the delegations did speak, all of the delegations listened."