Georgia Country

When Khatuna Lorig begins to train for the 2012 Olympics in London, she hopes to be training side by side with her husband, fellow archer Archil Onashvili. That would beat every training experience she's had. It would be better than when she was pregnant leading up to and during the 1992 Olympics in Barcelona, surpass training by candlelight in 1996, and beat practicing while she was a single mother in 2004.

President Bush escalated the American response Wednesday to Russian military action in Georgia, ordering a humanitarian aid effort and dispatching Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to the stricken region as Pentagon officials announced plans to rebuild the Georgian military. Speaking in the Rose Garden, Bush accused Russia of seizing territory in Georgia and continuing its military campaign despite agreeing to a cease-fire.

John McCain's chief foreign policy advisor and the advisor's business partner lobbied the senator or his staff on 49 occasions in a 3 1/2 -year span while being paid hundreds of thousands of dollars by the former Soviet republic of Georgia. The payments raise questions about the intersection of Randy Scheunemann's personal financial interests and his advice to the Republican presidential candidate, who is seizing on Russian aggression in Georgia as a campaign issue. McCain warned Russian leaders Tuesday that their assault in Georgia risks "the benefits they enjoy from being part of the civilized world."

Army Gen. David H. Petraeus, the U.S. commander in Iraq, is being forced to grapple with one of the unexpected byproducts of the conflict in Georgia: His plan to withdraw American forces in Iraq was predicated on all partner nations keeping their troop levels intact. With nearly 2,000 Georgian troops returning home in the midst of the crisis there, the coalition has lost what one senior military official called one of the largest and most capable contributions to the Iraq effort.

They squat in abandoned buildings, crash in rickety schoolhouses or sleep under bushes and trees. They stumble into the city wooden-faced and traumatized, children in tow, with little or nothing but the clothes they were wearing when they fled their houses. Tens of thousands of Georgians have been forced from their homes by days of fighting and Russian occupation, leaving this small country suddenly swamped in a major humanitarian crisis.

Georgia on Tuesday released recordings of what it says are two cellphone calls that show Moscow invaded ahead of Georgia's offensive in South Ossetia last month. President Mikheil Saakashvili said they prove that Russian tanks and troops entered South Ossetia many hours before Georgia moved against separatist forces. Russia dismissed that argument.

Nearly six weeks after Russia sent troops into neighboring Georgia, the Bush administration remains deeply divided over whether to retaliate against it -- and some officials fear the internal conflict is already undermining strategically important national security collaborations.

Russian troops on Sunday began dismantling positions in the so-called security zones in Georgia that they have occupied since the war in August, Georgian and EU officials said. Moscow faces a Friday deadline for pulling back its troops under a deal brokered by French President Nicolas Sarkozy on behalf of the European Union. Hundreds of EU observers began monitoring Russia's compliance last week.

Thousands of flag-waving demonstrators stopped Tbilisi traffic Friday in the first major protest against President Mikheil Saakashvili since Georgia's war with Russia. The United Opposition coalition brought more than 10,000 protesters onto the streets of the capital, one year after riot police used tear gas, rubber bullets and water cannons to disperse peaceful demonstrators calling for Saakashvili's ouster.

Shots were fired Sunday as a motorcade carrying the presidents of Georgia and Poland approached a checkpoint near the breakaway province of South Ossetia, Georgian officials said. No one was hurt, and details of the incident were disputed even among Georgian officials. Interior Ministry spokesman Shota Utiashvili said the shots were fired as the motorcade approached a Russian military checkpoint near the town of Akhalgori in South Ossetia.