A prayer for Georgia.

Psalm 146
1 Praise the LORD.
Praise the LORD, O my soul.

2 I will praise the LORD all my life;
I will sing praise to my God as long as I live.

3 Do not put your trust in princes,
in mortal men, who cannot save.

4 When their spirit departs, they return to the ground;
on that very day their plans come to nothing.

5 Blessed is he whose help is the God of Jacob,
whose hope is in the LORD his God,

6 the Maker of heaven and earth,
the sea, and everything in them—
the LORD, who remains faithful forever.

7 He upholds the cause of the oppressed
and gives food to the hungry.
The LORD sets prisoners free,

8 the LORD gives sight to the blind,
the LORD lifts up those who are bowed down,
the LORD loves the righteous.

9 The LORD watches over the alien
and sustains the fatherless and the widow,
but he frustrates the ways of the wicked.

10 The LORD reigns forever,
your God, O Zion, for all generations.

Praise the LORD.


Georgian relief operation hampered as aid workers ambushed

"The Secretary General is extremely concerned by the impact of the recent conflict on the civilian population in Georgia, which has suffered loss of life and injury, significant damage to civilian property and infrastructure, as well as sizeable displacement," Ban's office said in a statement.

He reiterated "the critical importance of safe and unimpeded access for humanitarian actors to all conflict-affected areas."

Latest estimates by the Georgian and Russian governments put the number of displaced people in the region at nearly 115,000, up from a previous estimate of 100,000.

Pressure grows on Russia amid sabotage charges

"The United States spent 45 years working very hard to avoid a military confrontation with Russia. I see no reason to change that approach today," he said.

However, the world would look at Russia "through a different set of lenses" in the wake of its actions in Georgia, Gates said.

"The days and months to come will determine the future course of US-Russian relations," he told a Pentagon news conference.

"But, by the same token, my personal view is that there needs to be some consequences for the actions that Russia has taken against a sovereign state."

Two military exercises with the Russians have been cancelled, and the gamut of US military relations with Russia are under review, he said.

Bank analyst forecast Georgian crisis 2 days early

MOSCOW, Aug 14 (Reuters) - The outbreak of war between Georgia and Russia shocked most of the world last week, but an investment bank analyst predicted it two days in advance.

Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili sent troops into the breakaway, pro-Russian region of South Ossetia on Aug. 7, on the eve of the Beijing Olympic Games, and Russia responded with overwhelming military force.

Geoff Smith, a Kiev-based analyst for Renaissance Capital investment bank, had anticipated the Georgian move with uncanny prescience in an e-mail two days earlier to a fellow strategist.

"So whaddaya think? I say Saakashvili is going to 'restore the territorial integrity of Georgia' five minutes before the opening ceremony starts in Beijing and dare the Russians to invade while the games are on?" the note said.

Georgian villagers flee amid claims of atrocities by armed militias arriving from South Ossetia

Earlier this week, Nugzari Jashavili was walking across fields to his house in the Georgian village of Tkviavi. Some 50 metres away, he spotted gunmen approaching his neighbour Gela Chikladze.

"They grabbed him round the shoulder and slit his throat," Jashavili said. "There were five of them. They had arrived from South Ossetia in a jeep. They were going across the village from house to house."

Jashavili, 65, said he hid in a cornfield. He watched the Chechen and Ossetian irregulars help themselves to his furniture and 100-watt generator. Further down the road, he said, they shot his cousin Koba. They also executed another man, Shamila Okropridze.

The irregulars had come from the Russian-controlled South Ossetian capital, Tskinvali, five miles (8km) away. According to the villagers' accounts, the militias, with the apparent support of the Russian army, began a campaign of ethnic cleansing, killing teenage boys, stealing vehicles, looting and burning.

Russia wins concesssions in Georgia truce

PARIS (AP) — Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice will ask Georgia to sign a cease-fire agreement with Russia that includes concessions to Moscow but preserves Georgian borders, U.S. officials said Thursday.

The French-brokered agreement requires Russia to withdraw all of its combat forces from Georgia but gives Russian peacekeepers the express right to patrol beyond the disputed border region of South Ossetia that lies at the heart of the conflict, the officials said.

Killings in Gori, Georgia

In the village of Tedotsminda, which is near Gori, four civilian cars were found with murdered people in them-claimed the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Georgia.

The Associated Press reporter said fighters from Abkhazia had moved into Georgian territory.They planted their flag on a bridge on the river Inguri.

Meanwhile sources in Gori informed us that local commuters are rubbed on Gori highway by Russian, Kazakhstan and Ossetian military. Same problems are occurred inside the town and nearby villages as well.

THE RUSSIAN-GEORGIAN WAR WAS PREPLANNED IN MOSCOW

Moscow declared that it was forced to go to battle by the initial Georgian attack in South Ossetia (RIA-Novosti, August 8). But there is sufficient evidence that this massive invasion was preplanned beforehand for August (see EDM, June 12). The swiftness with which large Russian contingents were moved into Georgia, the rapid deployment of a Black Sea naval task force, the fact that large contingents of troops were sent to Abkhazia where there was no Georgian attack all seem to indicate a rigidly prepared battle plan. This war was not an improvised reaction to a sudden Georgian military offensive in South Ossetia, since masses of troops cannot be held for long in 24-hour battle readiness. The invasion was inevitable, no matter what the Georgians did.

It seems the main drive of the Russian invasion was Georgia's aspiration to join NATO, while the separatist problem was only a pretext. Georgia occupies a key geopolitical position, and Moscow is afraid that if George joins NATO, Russia will be flushed out of Transcaucasia. The NATO summit in Bucharest, Romania, last April, where Ukraine and Georgia did not get the so-called Membership Action Plan or MAP to join the Alliance but were promised eventual membership, seems to have prompted a decision to go to war (Interfax, April 3).

'Where was God?' ask refugees from Georgia war

ALAGIR, Russia -- Sarmat Kapisov ran all night through the forest with his family, fleeing the fighting in South Ossetia and headed for the Georgia-Russia border. On his back, the 17-year-old carried his brother, who has cerebral palsy.

"It wasn't easy," Kapisov said, huddled alongside his mother and seven siblings, who have taken refuge here at an Orthodox convent across the Russian border.

The convent director, known as Mother Nonna, said thousands have passed through since the bloodshed began one week ago in the pro-Russian separatist province claimed by Georgia.

Danger on the Inside

You probably didn’t have much money in Georgia, Ukraine, or Kazakhstan, the three countries most immediately affected by this.

That’s good. And here’s why:

Georgia, which had been well run economically, but was too small to be on most investors’ radar screens, has become a very dangerous investment location, indeed.

Kazakhstan is likely to turn much more hostile to Western investors as it reorients itself towards a newly aggressive Russia. Companies like Italy’s Eni S.p.A. (ADR: E) that had appeared to do well out of their ability to invest in difficult environments like Kazakhstan will watch as that “difficult” mutates to “impossible,” perhaps even losing their proverbial shirts there.

Only the Ukraine seems to be trying its best to remain pro-Western, with its president, Viktor Yushchenko, flying in to Tbilisi to express solidarity with Georgia. However Ukraine has a presidential election next year – and no prize for guessing who will be trying to influence that election in favor of a pro-Russian anti-Western candidate, by violent means if necessary.

Poland, US reach missile shield deal

WARSAW (Thomson Financial) - Warsaw and Washington have reached a preliminary deal on basing a controversial U.S. missile shield in Poland, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk announced Thursday.

Russian warns against US missile defense in Poland

MOSCOW: A Russian lawmaker says an agreement to put American missiles in Poland will raise tensions between Moscow and Washington.

Parliamentary foreign affairs committee chairman Konstantin Kosachev is quoted by Interfax news agency as saying the agreement will spark "a real rise in tensions in Russian-American relations." He says the plan targets Russia.