Georgia Protesters Battle Police in First Violent Outbreak

[bemildred]

Source: NYT

TBILISI, Georgia — Opposition activists clashed with Georgian police officers in Tbilisi on Wednesday night, leaving dozens of people injured, in the first outbreak of violence since widespread antigovernment protests began on April 9.

The fray began when activists climbed a barricade surrounding a police station, demanding the release of three young members of an opposition group accused of assaulting a television news anchor. Police officers with clubs beat the protesters, who responded with sticks and stones.

Twenty-two protesters, one journalist and six policemen were treated for injuries, said Shota Utiashvili, an Interior Ministry spokesman. He said police officers were under orders not to attack, and denied opposition reports that they used rubber bullets to disperse the protesters.

“As soon as they backed off, no force was used against them,” Mr. Utiashvili said.

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/07/world/europe/07georgia.html?hpw

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1. Bid to storm Georgia police HQ repelled

Opposition protesters clashed with police in the Georgian capital on Wednesday as political tensions mounted in the former Soviet republic.

Officials said riot police used truncheons to repel protesters trying to climb a fence into a main police building. The opposition said police fired rubber bullets at demonstrators, which officials denied.

But Deputy Interior Minister Eka Zguladze said 22 protesters, six police and a journalist had been injured.

The disturbances came only one day after an attempted military mutiny against President Mikheil Saakashvili that the government has blamed on Russia.

http://news.brisbanetimes.com.au/breaking-news-world/bid-to-storm-georgia-police-hq-repelled-20090507-avrp.html

[bemildred]

2. NATO holds war games in Georgia

TBILISI - NATO kicks off controversial military exercises in Georgia as tensions with Russia heighten over Moscow's expulsion of two alliance diplomats. Launched a day after Georgia accused Russia of backing a brief military mutiny, the exercises deeply strain ties between the Cold War-era rivals

NATO holds war games in Georgia NATO launched military exercises in former Soviet Georgia yesterday after heavy criticism from neighboring Russia and a brief mutiny in the Georgian military. Russia - which regards NATO as a Cold War relic with intrusive ambitions to expand into former Soviet countries - angrily dismissed Georgian accusations that Tuesday's mutiny was a Moscow-engineered coup attempt.

Further straining relations with the military alliance, Russia expelled two NATO officials, both Canadian citizens, working in Moscow in a tit-for-tat move after two Russian diplomats were kicked out of Brussels, apparently over a February spy scandal, reported The Associated Press. "We naturally were forced to react," Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said in televised comments Wednesday, adding that Russia was simply playing by the "rules of the game."

http://www.hurriyet.com.tr/english/world/11594346.asp?scr=1

[Happyhippychick]

3. Hey McCain - are we still Georgians?