Tbilisi

TBILISI, Georgia - A flood killed five people in Georgia's capital overnight after torrential rain caused a river to burst its banks, officials said Sunday. The Agency for Emergency Situations said that a mother and her two children, an elderly woman, and an elderly man died in Tbilisi's Ortachala neighborhood after the Kura River flooded Saturday night. All five were trapped in their homes and crushed when the buildings collapsed. One of the children was 6 months old; the other was 5. At least 30 other people sought medical help.

TBILISI, Georgia - A flood killed five people in Georgia's capital overnight after torrential rain caused a river to burst its banks, officials said Sunday. The Agency for Emergency Situations said that a mother and her two children, an elderly woman, and an elderly man died in Tbilisi's Ortachala neighborhood after the Kura River flooded Saturday night. All five were trapped in their homes and crushed when the buildings collapsed. One of the children was 6 months old; the other was 5. At least 30 other people sought medical help.

TBILISI, Georgia — Voters in Georgia chose local leaders yesterday in the first ballot since President Mikhail Saakashvili led the country into a disastrous war with neighboring Russia nearly two years ago. Saakashvili’s rule has elevated Georgia’s status in the West yet turned the nation into a bitter adversary of Russia. His party appeared poised for a crucial victory in the capital, Tbilisi, where residents for the first time were allowed to elect the city’s mayor directly.

TBILISI, Georgia — Voters in Georgia chose local leaders yesterday in the first ballot since President Mikhail Saakashvili led the country into a disastrous war with neighboring Russia nearly two years ago. Saakashvili’s rule has elevated Georgia’s status in the West yet turned the nation into a bitter adversary of Russia. His party appeared poised for a crucial victory in the capital, Tbilisi, where residents for the first time were allowed to elect the city’s mayor directly.

TBILISI, Georgia -- Exasperated Georgians crowded at the capital's airport in disbelief yesterday after Russia cut all travel links with the former Soviet republic in retaliation for detaining four of its military officers for espionage. Moscow refused international pressure to lift the suspension of road, rail, air, maritime, and postal links, saying Tbilisi deeply insulted it by arresting the officers. Georgia released the men Monday, and they were permitted to return to Russia.

TBILISI, Georgia - Before Georgia's war with Russia, the parents of Salome Lomadze, a lively 3-year-old with curly dark hair, were planning to walk her up the street to school every morning, starting this month. But Salome is one of 50,000 Georgian children, government officials say, who won't be attending classes this fall because their schools - mostly kindergartens - now shelter tens of thousands of people who fled the fighting. Abroad, Russia's crushing defeat of Georgia's military in August severely damaged relations between Moscow and the West.

TBILISI, Georgia -- Georgian police yesterday detained a man suspected of throwing a live grenade during a rally at which President Bush spoke in May, the Interior Ministry said. The capture came after a shoot-out in which one officer was killed and another wounded. The shoot-out and detention occurred last evening in the village of Vashlisdzhvari, outside the capital, Tbilisi, ministry spokesman Guram Donadze said. The suspect fled into the woods but was later detained, Donadze said.

TBILISI, Georgia -- A man who confessed to throwing a live grenade toward President Bush during a rally in Georgia was charged with premeditated murder yesterday in the killing of a policeman during a shootout that preceded his arrest. Vladimir Arutyunian, who has been hospitalized since he was detained Wednesday, admitted in video footage shown Thursday that he threw the grenade that landed near a podium where Bush was speaking in the Georgian capital, Tbilisi, in May, officials said.

TBILISI, Georgia -- Hundreds of Georgians gathered yesterday in the snow in central Tbilisi to mourn Prime Minister Zurab Zhvania, whose death has left the struggling former Soviet republic concerned about its future. Zhvania was found dead early Thursday in a friend's apartment, apparently the victim of carbon monoxide poisoning from a poorly installed gas heater. The friend, a regional politician, also died. Zhvania, 41, was a key figure in attempts to lift the country out of its post-Soviet economic collapse and political turmoil.

TBILISI, Georgia -- From an extraordinary display of Soviet-era imagery in Red Square and a showing of friendship with his Russian counterpart, President Bush returns today to the primary theme of his European trip: a global push for greater democratic freedoms. Bush arrived in the former Soviet republic of Georgia last night, coming straight from the elaborate ceremonies in Moscow celebrating the 60th anniversary of the end of World War II. The Bush administration hoped that soaring rhetoric on the value of freedom, to be delivered by the president in a speech today, would...

TBILISI, Georgia - Before Georgia's war with Russia, the parents of Salome Lomadze, a lively 3-year-old with curly dark hair, were planning to walk her up the street to school every morning, starting this month. But Salome is one of 50,000 Georgian children, government officials say, who won't be attending classes this fall because their schools - mostly kindergartens - now shelter tens of thousands of people who fled the fighting. Abroad, Russia's crushing defeat of Georgia's military in August severely damaged relations between Moscow and the West.

TBILISI, Georgia - Diplomats from every NATO nation demanded immediate Russian withdrawal from Georgia in a show of support from the US ally's capital yesterday that made no promise of faster membership in the alliance. NATO Secretary-General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer led 26 envoys in calling on Moscow to comply with a cease-fire deal and withdraw to positions its forces held before fighting with Georgia erupted Aug. 7. But the diplomats offered no positive response to President Mikhail Saakashvili's call to "accelerate" Georgia's integration into NATO.

WASHINGTON - The United States urged Russia yesterday to halt aircraft and missile attacks in Georgia's breakaway region of South Ossetia and withdraw its combat forces from Georgian territory as the situation in the former Soviet state verged on full-scale war. The White House said President Bush discussed the situation with Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin while both leaders were in Beijing for the start of the Olympics. And Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice called the parties involved in hopes of ending the fighting, and made...

MOSCOW -- President Vladimir Putin yesterday accused Georgia of blackmail and lawmakers threatened more sanctions as Moscow police went after businesses allegedly tied to Georgian organized crime and cracked down on illegal migrants from the Caucasus Mountains nation. The Kremlin's fury over the arrest last week of four Russian officers in Georgia -- which sparked Moscow's suspension of air, sea, road, rail, and postal links Tuesday -- showed no sign of ebbing despite their release.

TBILISI, Georgia -- Exasperated Georgians crowded at the capital's airport in disbelief yesterday after Russia cut all travel links with the former Soviet republic in retaliation for detaining four of its military officers for espionage. Moscow refused international pressure to lift the suspension of road, rail, air, maritime, and postal links, saying Tbilisi deeply insulted it by arresting the officers. Georgia released the men Monday, and they were permitted to return to Russia.

TBILISI, Georgia -- Russia resumed sending natural gas to Georgia yesterday after finishing repairs to a major pipeline damaged by mysterious blasts last week. But Tbilisi accused Moscow of taking too long to fix the damage to punish the pro-Western policies of Georgia, which relies on Russia for its gas needs. The US-allied state contended Russia was waging an energy blockade against it after two Jan. 22 explosions tore through the main pipeline that transports Russian gas to Georgia across the Caucasus Mountains.

MOSCOW -- President Vladimir Putin yesterday accused Georgia of blackmail and lawmakers threatened more sanctions as Moscow police went after businesses allegedly tied to Georgian organized crime and cracked down on illegal migrants from the Caucasus Mountains nation. The Kremlin's fury over the arrest last week of four Russian officers in Georgia -- which sparked Moscow's suspension of air, sea, road, rail, and postal links Tuesday -- showed no sign of ebbing despite their release.

WASHINGTON - The United States urged Russia yesterday to halt aircraft and missile attacks in Georgia's breakaway region of South Ossetia and withdraw its combat forces from Georgian territory as the situation in the former Soviet state verged on full-scale war. The White House said President Bush discussed the situation with Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin while both leaders were in Beijing for the start of the Olympics. And Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice called the parties involved in hopes of ending the fighting, and made plans...

TBILISI, Georgia -- A man who confessed to throwing a live grenade toward President Bush during a rally in Georgia was charged with premeditated murder yesterday in the killing of a policeman during a shootout that preceded his arrest. Vladimir Arutyunian, who has been hospitalized since he was detained Wednesday, admitted in video footage shown Thursday that he threw the grenade that landed near a podium where Bush was speaking in the Georgian capital, Tbilisi, in May, officials said.

TBILISI, Georgia -- Georgian police yesterday detained a man suspected of throwing a live grenade during a rally at which President Bush spoke in May, the Interior Ministry said. The capture came after a shoot-out in which one officer was killed and another wounded. The shoot-out and detention occurred last evening in the village of Vashlisdzhvari, outside the capital, Tbilisi, ministry spokesman Guram Donadze said. The suspect fled into the woods but was later detained, Donadze said.