Georgia

As crews pulled another body from the charred remnants of a sugary refinery, families and co-workers waited anxiously for identities of the five dead and the fate of the three men still missing. They also hoped for any sign of recovery among the worst injured in the explosion and fire, which left 20 workers hospitalized with severe burns, 17 of them in medically induced comas. "It's just hours of waiting right now," said Hallie Capers, whose two nephews were in critical condition at a burn center in Augusta, 130 miles up the Savannah River.

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 . . .

Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne acknowledged that White House-brokered water negotiations among Alabama, Florida and Georgia have failed. Without an agreement, the Army Corps of Engineers and other federal agencies will begin implementing a water-sharing plan of their own, Kempthorne said in a letter to the governors. "Regrettably, it will necessarily be a solution being directed to the states instead of our much hoped for solution coming from the states," he wrote. Kempthorne said that the talks yielded more progress in three months than at any time during the last 18 years.

Georgia's highest court on Monday threw out a lawsuit contending that NBC's "Deal or No Deal" violated state anti-gambling laws when it invited viewers to take part in a game via text message. The Georgia Supreme Court ruled unanimously against Michael and Michele Hardin, who wanted NBC to repay them and other state residents for the cost of sending 99-cent text messages in hopes of winning a prize on the hit show's "Lucky Case Game." The game challenged at-home viewers to guess which of six on-screen gold briefcases was the lucky case.

Russia's Defense Ministry said it is building up troop contingents in two separatist regions of Georgia because of what it called provocative actions by the former Soviet republic. Details of the buildup have not been specified, but the announcement adds to tensions between the small Caucasus country and its giant neighbor. It also raises fears of a renewal of the fighting that broke out in the regions after the collapse of the Soviet Union. Georgia cut off talks with Russia about Moscow's efforts to join the World Trade Organization in protest of Russian ties to the breakaway regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia, a top negotiator said Tuesday.

Police detained 14 Russian peacekeepers near Georgia's breakaway region of Abkhazia who Georgian officials said were transporting antitank rockets without permission, a charge Moscow denied. Ties between Russia and Georgia have deteriorated sharply in recent months since Moscow bolstered economic support for separatists in Abkhazia and increased its peacekeeping presence there, which Georgia opposes. Abkhazia is a stretch of land between the Black Sea and Russia that broke away from the former Soviet republic of Georgia in a war after the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union.

This Georgia is a real peach. The 6-year-old, 55-pound pit bull that has the tragic distinction of being one of the Michael Vick dogs had TV critics and reporters (present company included) on their knees Wednesday afternoon. After the National Geographic Channel's press conference on its new "Dogtown" season, which includes episodes following the rehabilitation of four of the 22 abused Vick canines, journalists flocked to the front of the room to pet Georgia, rub her belly and photograph her. The biggest impression?

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.

Re "Message from Moscow," editorial, Aug. 12 The United States rightly pushed for the independence of Kosovo because the vast majority of the population wanted it. If we believe in democracy, surely we should also push for a referendum under which the people of Abkhazia and South Ossetia can decide whether they wish to remain part of Georgia, become part of Russia or possibly become independent nations. We should then support the people's wishes. I know little about this part of the world, but it appears that the majority of the population of these two regions do not want to be part of Georgia.

Re "Stand up to Russia," Opinion, Aug. 12 Neocon subaltern Max Boot would trivialize Hitler by comparing that monster to, of all people, Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, in a transparent attempt to ramp up another Cold War between Russia and the West. In trying to depict Russia as the bad guy, Boot obfuscates the truth by describing Georgia's naked invasion of South Ossetia as a "clash." The Georgians killed or wounded hundreds, and perhaps thousands, of Russians and South Ossetians in last week's attack on the province's capital city.