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TBILISI, Aug 16 (Reuters) - Georgia's Interior Ministry said on Saturday that Russian troops had blown up a railway bridge about 45 km (30 miles) from the Georgian capital Tbilisi. Ministry spokesman Shota Utiashvili said troops had destroyed the bridge in the Kaspi region west of Tbilisi, "paralysing the Georgian railway network". Reuters could not independently verify the report. A Reuters correspondent saw Russian armoured personnel carriers and soldiers advance to the area on Friday from the Russian-occupied town of Gori near breakaway South Ossetia.

This morning, after receiving an update from his national security team on the situation in Georgia, President Bush delivered a brief statement from the White House Rose Garden. (Transcript) The United States and our allies stand with the people of Georgia and their democratically elected government. Georgia's sovereignty and territorial integrity must be respected. Moscow must honor its commitment to withdraw its invading forces from all Georgian territory … The people of Georgia have cast their lot with the free world, and we will not cast them aside. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice arrived in Tbilisi, Georgia today and met...

TBILISI, Georgia, Aug. 14, 2008 – A U.S. Air Force C-17 Globemaster III transport jet departed Ramstein Air Base, Germany, and landed at Tbilisi International Airport here yesterday, delivering $1 million in humanitarian aid to reduce the suffering of the people of the former Soviet republic of Georgia. Air Force Staff Sgt. Chris Broegemueller, assigned to the 86th Airlift Wing's Contingency Response Group at Sembach Air Base, Germany, helps to push out the first of 16 pallets aboard a U.S. Air Force C-17 Globemaster III in Tbilisi, Georgia, Aug. 13, 2008. The humanitarian assistance delivery consisted of $1 million...

AMERICA'S George Bush delivered a stark warning to Russia this week that led Russia to begin to pull back its forces in Georgia. Mr Bush sent his secretary of state, Condoleezza Rice, to Georgia and told his defence secretary, Robert Gates, to organise a humanitarian-aid operation. The first American military aircraft landed at Tbilisi airport on Thursday August 14th. This conflict is about more than the two separatist regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia, or displacing Mikheil Saakashvili, Georgia’s hot-headed president. It is about Russia, resurgent and nationalistic, pushing its way back into the Caucasus and chasing others out, and...

The use of units comprised of ethnic Chechens to do much of the very dirty work in Georgia. The nickname [‘Shrek’] given by his comrades to the bald, pug-eared soldier was the only moment of light relief during a day of tense drama in which The Times witnessed Russia breaching the ceasefire agreement over South Ossetia at will. At a checkpoint set up by the Russian Army on the approach to the city of Gori from the Georgian capital, Tbilisi, an armoured personnel carrier blocked the road and riflemen had fanned out in the surrounding bushes, their weapons trained on...

Kaczynski in Tbilisi: ‘We are here to take up the fight” Created: 13.08.2008 11:18 Polish President Lech Kaczynski delivered a confrontational speech in support of Georgia at a rally in Tbilisi, Tuesday. “We are here to take up the fight. For the first time in years our eastern neighbours show their true face that we have known for hundreds of years”, Kaczynski addressed the crowds gathered at a rally in Tbilisi on Tuesday evening. “They think other nations should be subordinated to them. We say no! That country is Russia,” Kaczynski shouted to the applauding crowd. The Polish President accused...

GORI, Georgia — On the day that Russia declared an end to its war in Georgia, Jumberi, a taxi driver who gave only his first name, took a long drag on a Marlboro Red cigarette and said that after the first bomb hit, all he saw was body parts. He motioned to the shattered windshield of his Toyota Corolla and the bloody handprints on the side of the car — left there when the wounded and dying collapsed as they begged him to take them to the hospital. "I heard the sound of the jets, but I did not see...

In any community – a school class, a workshop, an army unit or a prison cell – laymen are tested for strength. Tests may be different: a special procedure of "initiation", a provocation, a physical contest or psychological pressure. In the same way, a goalkeeper in a soccer game is tested at the start with long-distance and precarious blows. Global policy follows similar rules. During recent decades, the West has been systematically testing Moscow leaders for strength. Yury Andropov was tested by a South Korean aircraft illegitimately entering the air territory of the USSR. Mikhail Gorbachev's personal psychological and political...

For Immediate Release Office of the Press SecretaryMay 10, 2005 President Addresses and Thanks Citizens in Tbilisi, Georgia Freedom Square Tbilisi, Georgia 1:27 P.M. (Local) PRESIDENT BUSH: Mr. President, thank you for that introduction. Citizens of a free Georgia, Laura and I were in the neighborhood -- we thought we'd swing by and say gamarjoba. (Applause.) I am proud to stand beside a President who has shown such spirit, determination, and leadership in the cause of freedom. (Applause.) And Laura and I are proud to stand with the courageous people of Georgia, in this place that has earned a...

Georgia move fails to halt raids Georgia insists that all its forces are now outside South Ossetia Russia has continued air raids deep inside Georgia, after it rejected Tbilisi's announcement that it had called a ceasefire and wanted talks.Jets bombed targets near Tbilisi, including the airport, and Russia said its warships had sunk a Georgian boat that approached and tried to attack. Russia earlier took control of the breakaway region of South Ossetia, forcing Georgian troops to withdraw. The US has accused Russia of seeking "regime change" in Georgia. Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili told the BBC his forces had...

TBILISI, Aug 8 (Reuters) - Russian jets bombed the Vaziani military airbase outside the Georgian capital Tbilisi on Friday, a senior Georgian security official told Reuters. "No one was wounded but some buildings have been destroyed," said Kakha Lamaia. The airbase is some 25 kilometres (15 miles) from Tbilisi. "They have declared war against us," said Lamaia.

Nikoloz Rurua, the deputy chairman of the Georgian parliament's Committee for Defense and Security, says helicopters that attacked the Kodori Gorge came from Russian territory, RFE/RL's Georgian Service reported. Georgia says Russian helicopters fired on the gorge on March 11, which Russia denies. A multinational commission, including the United Nations, the Georgian government, Abkhazia's separatist government, and peacekeepers from the Commonwealth of Independent States, is investigating the incident. "Three helicopters, preliminarily identified as Mi-24 attack gunships, flew [into the Kodori Gorge] from Russian territory or, to be precise, from the territory of Kabardino-Balkaria," Rurua said. "They made a circle above...

Forty-three-year-old Ilya serves as an acolyte at the Russian Orthodox Church named after Aleksandr Nevsky in Tbilisi. He arrived in Georgia from his native Volgograd seven years ago. Ilya says he's praying the confrontation between Russia and Georgia does not end up affecting ordinary people like himself living in Georgia. Already, hundreds of Georgians have been expelled from Russia for alleged illegal immigration. Russia has imposed a series of measures against Georgians living in Russia, despite Tbilisi's release of four Russian soldiers accused of spying. Ilya says the deterioration in relations between Georgia and Russia has not yet been reflected...

The espionage dispute between Georgia and Russia intensified September 29, with a statement from the Georgian Interior Ministry that Russian military "movements" had begun in territory bordering Georgia, and accusations from Moscow that the arrest of four Russian officers is part of a scheme to advance Georgia’s ambitions to join the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. Preliminary hearings for the four Russian officers in Georgian custody have been held, while an evacuation of the families of Russian diplomats from Tbilisi has begun. The Georgian Interior Ministry claimed that the government had detected signs of movement among Russian forces near the Georgian...

PRAGUE, July 28, 2006 (RFE/RL) -- Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili has ordered the Abkhaz government in exile to move from Tbilisi to the Kodori Gorge. The move is a bold step toward restoring central control over the breakaway province. The Kodori Gorge, a remote mountain valley in the northeast of Abkhazia, is the only part of the province still controlled by the Georgian authorities. Most of Abkhazia has been ruled independently of Tbilisi since achieving de facto independence in 1993.

Practically all Georgia has remained without an electricity The new misfortune has fallen upon Georgia. As a result of failure on LEP "Imeretia" practically all country has remained without an electricity. Now the power supply system of the country works in an extreme mode. As have informed RBC in the Ministry of fuel and power of Georgia, failure has occured today approximately at 1:00 Moscow time. Under the preliminary information, because of a strong wind the transmission line "Imeretia" connecting power supply systems on which the electric power acts from the Western Georgia in central and east regions of...

The man charged with throwing a grenade at President Bush during a speech earlier this year has sewn his mouth shut. The suspect had a court appearance in the former Russian republic of Georgia and communicated that he stitched his mouth closed in a gesture of solidarity with prison inmates who have gone on a hunger strike. The man is accused of throwing a grenade towards President Bush, and the president of Georgia while they were addressing a rally in Tbilisi back in May. Both leaders were behind bullet proof glass, and the grenade did not explode.

Georgia’s interior minister said a man who admitted throwing a live grenade toward US President George Bush during a rally in the ex-Soviet nation was acting alone and had no links to any foreign special services. Interior Minister Vano Merabishvili said Vladimir Arutyunian, who was indicted in September by a US grand jury on charges of trying to assassinate the president, will face trial in Georgia soon. “Arutyunian was a terrorist acting alone,” Merabishvili told the 24 Hours newspaper. Arutyunian faces terrorism and murder charges in Georgia stemming from the May 10 incident in Tbilisi and the killing of...

Tbilisi Officials Name Street After Bush 14,11:47 AM ET TBILISI, Georgia - City officials in the Georgian capital of Tbilisi voted Wednesday to rename a street in honor of President Bush, who was met by enthusiastic crowds here in May but also escaped an apparent attempt on his life. "George Bush is doing a lot for the development of democracy in the world and is helping Georgia with its democratic transformation. And we are proud that one of Tbilisi's streets will carry his name," said Mayor Gigi Ugulava. The measure passed 29-12, with opposition lawmakers in the assembly voting against...

TBILISI, Georgia — A man who confessed to throwing a live grenade toward President Bush during a rally in Georgia intended its shrapnel to hit the area where the president and others were standing, the suspect said video footage broadcast Saturday. "I threw the grenade, not directly at where there was bulletproof glass, but toward the heads ... so that the shrapnel would fly behind the bulletproof glass, you understand?" Vladimir Arutyunian said. Bush and Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili (search) were on a podium protected with bulletproof glass at a massive rally in Tbilisi in May when the grenade was...