Russian soldiers take prisoners in Georgia port

Russia has taken the first steps toward a troop pullback from Georgia but at the same time paraded blindfolded and bound Georgian prisoners on armored vehicles and seized four U.S. Humvees.

The mixed signals came Tuesday as NATO allies met in emergency session in Belgium and demanded Russia fulfill its promise to withdraw its forces from the small former Soviet republic.
A small Russian column including three tanks, three trucks, five armored personnel carriers and a rocket-launcher left Gori, the central city that straddles a vital east-west highway. A Russian officer said they were headed for South Ossetia, the disputed province at the heart of the conflict, then home to Russia.
The move toward withdrawal came on the same day as a powerful image of Russia's grip over Georgia: Russian trucks and armored vehicles carrying about 20 Georgian men, blindfolded, handcuffed and held at gunpoint.
They were taken from the western city of Poti to the nearby, Russian-controlled military base in Senaki, according to Poti's mayor, who said he had been told they would be released on Wednesday.
Mayor Vano Taginadze said the men, Georgian military and police troops, had been taken captive because the Georgians refused to let Russian armored vehicles into the port of Poti, along Georgia's Black Sea coast.
A Georgian defense spokeswoman said eight servicemen detained while trying to guard the port were among those held.
Also in Poti, Russian soldiers commandeered four Humvees that had been used in U.S.-Georgian military exercises and were destined to be shipped back to the United States.
The Pentagon said it was looking into the theft. Georgian Deputy Defense Minister Batu Kutelia said Russian forces seized the vehicles.
Russian forces in Poti also blocked access to the city's naval and commercial ports on Tuesday morning and towed the missile boat Dioskuria, one of the Georgian navy's most sophisticated vessels, out of sight of observers. A loud explosion was heard minutes later, and a Georgian interior spokesman said the Russians had blown up the boat.
The acts of force demonstrated anew that Russia, days after agreeing to a cease-fire with Georgia, remained in control in much of the country, and that the state of the Georgian military was far from stable.
Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili said Russia was not only flouting its withdrawal commitment but that its forces were "not losing time" in damaging Georgia by destroying infrastructure.
"Right now there are Russian soldiers and tanks at Poti," Georgian Finance Minister Nika Gilavri said. "They want to open every single container" and inspect them.
Georgian television showed footage of a tense standoff at a military training base in northwestern Georgia, where Russian troops tried to enter but were turned away by Georgian police. There was no violence, but the report said the Russians threatened to return and destroy the base if they were not allowed in.
The two nations did exchange 20 prisoners of war - 15 Georgians and five Russians, according to the head of Georgia's Security Council - in an effort to reduce tensions.
On the diplomatic front, NATO foreign ministers suspended their formal contacts with Russia as punishment. Secretary-General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer said "there can be no business as usual with Russia under present circumstances."
But the NATO allies, bowing to pressure from European nations that depend heavily on Russia for energy, stopped short of more severe penalties being pushed by the United States.
The Russian Ambassador to NATO, Dmitry Rogozin, dismissed the impact of the emergency meeting in Brussels, Belgium: "The mountain gave birth to a mouse."
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said NATO was trying to make a victim of Georgia's "criminal regime." Georgia's desire for NATO membership is strongly opposed by Russia.
Lavrov also said it was Georgian troops who needed to pull back to their permanent bases first. The U.N. Security Council also was holding emergency consultations on the conflict.
The White House made clear it expected Russia to move faster. "It didn't take them really three or four days to get into Georgia, and it really shouldn't take them three or four days to get out," spokesman Gordon Johndroe said.
The hostilities began earlier this month. Georgia cracked down on South Ossetia, which is internationally recognized as within Georgian borders but tilts toward Moscow and has expressed its independence, and Russia answered by sending its troops and tanks across the Georgian border.
A cease-fire signed by Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and Georgia's Saakashvili calls for Russian forces to pull back to the positions they held before Aug. 7.
The Kremlin said Medvedev told French President Nicolas Sarkozy by phone Tuesday that Russian troops would withdraw from most of Georgia by Friday - some to Russia, others to South Ossetia and a surrounding "security zone" set in 1999.
More American C-130 transport planes brought in tons of relief supplies for the tens of thousands displaced by the conflict, and the U.S. said it would help for as long as needed.
U.S. Army Brig. Gen. Jon Miller said he was told food is the major issue for people west of the capital, Tbilisi, because only sporadic convoys carrying rations had been able to get through.
Georgian government officials said Russian checkpoints had made it difficult to get supplies into some areas, including Poti.
Tensions also flared between Russia and another former Soviet republic seeking NATO membership, Ukraine. The two countries sparred over Russia's use of a naval base in the port of Sevastopol, which it is renting from Ukraine. The Kremlin wants the Russian ships to remain in Sevastopol even when the current lease expires in 2017.
Ukraine's pro-Western President, Viktor Yushchenko, sided with Georgia in its conflict with Russia and moved to restrict the movement of Russian ships in the port. Ukraine's foreign minister later said Ukraine would not physically prevent Russian ships from entering and leaving the base.

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Zambian President Levy Mwanawasa dies in French

Zambian President Levy Mwanawasa, who broke the African tradition of silence and solidarity among leaders to denounce neighboring Zimbabwe's economic ruin, has died

in a French military hospital. He was 59.
Mwanawasa had suffered a stroke and collapsed at an African Union summit in Egypt in June, costing Zimbabweans the voice of one of their few champions on the continent.
U.S. President George W. Bush praised Mwanawasa for speaking out against human rights abuses and threats to democracy "when many others were silent."
"President Mwanawasa was a champion of democracy in his own country and throughout Africa," Bush said in a statement released at his ranch in Crawford, Texas.
French President Nicolas Sarkozy called Mwanawasa's death "a great loss for th African continent."
Mwanawasa was airlifted from Egypt to France's Percy Military Hospital, where he remained until he had an urgent operation on Monday and died on Tuesday, according to Vice President Rupiah Banda.
Banda made the televised announcement "with great grief and deep sorrow."
Mwawasa's illness precipitated power struggles within and between Zambia's political parties and his death
leaves a power vacuum. Mwanawasa did not groom a successor, and Banda was expected to continue as acting president until an election that must be held within 90 days.
Widely regarded as a man of integrity, he won praise for breaking the traditional silence of African leaders to criticize his autocratic neighbor, Zimbabwe's Robert Mugabe, which encouraged a few other African presidents to show their displeasure.
Speaking earlier this year of Zimbabwe and the exodus of millions of its citizens, Mwanawasa sid the country "has sunk into such economic difficulties that it may be likened to a sinking Titanic whose passengers are jumping out in a bid to save their lives."
Zimbabwe's opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai was one of the first to pay tribute to a "good friend and comrade" who stood up for democray in southern Africa.
"His passing-on is a sad day to the Zimbabwean people," said Tsvangirai, who had repeatedly asked that Mwanawasa replace South African President Thabo Mbeki in mediating the Zimbabwean crisis.
Mugabe was long revered as an African independence hero, but the softly spoken Mwanawasa - Zambia's third president since independence from Britain in 1964 - was not bound by the liberation movement ties of older African leaders.
Mwanawasa was equally outspoken about Western criticism of the unconditional aid that China is pouring into Africa, as well as hundreds of millions of dollars China has invested in mining Zambian copper.
"You people in the West redeem yourself before you begin attacking China," Mwanawasa told an audience in the United States last year.
At home and abroad, Mwanawasa won praise for fighting corruption and modernizing Zambia's economy.
But he admitted that he had failed to lift the nation of 12 million people out of crushing poverty.
Born on Sept. 3, 1948, in the northern town of Mufulira, Mwanawasa graduated from the University of Zambia and practiced law before going into government service. After a stint as solicitor general in 1986, under Zambia's first president, Kenneth Kaunda, Mwanawasa became a key figure in the push for multiparty democracy.
When Frederick Chiluba defeated Kaunda in Zambia's first multiparty elections in 1991, Mwanawasa was appointed vice president, but soon quit the post, complaining of corruption.
Still, Chiluba later tapped Mwanawasa to be his successor. Mwanawasa won the presidency in 2001 in an election marred by allegations of fraud, and was re-elected with 43 percent of the vote in a 2006 poll generally regarded as transparent and fair.
Mwanawasa seized on anti-corruption and economic reforms and targeted Chiluba, who was found guilty in a London court of stealing US$46 million from state coffers during his 10-year rule.
Mwanawasa tamed inflation, from 21.7 percent when he became president to an estimated 6.6 percent. His economic austerity and market-opening policies drew support from Western donors who in 2005 canceled nearly all of Zambia's $7.2 billion foreign debt.
But critics accused him of turning a blind eye to the plight of the poor in a country where less than 20 percent of the population has formal employment and the majority lives below the poverty line. Zambia's sprawling townships, homes of the urban poor, became the power base of his populist rival Michael Sata.
Opponents said Mwanawasa pandered to the whims of Western donors; Mwanawasa countered that it was thanks to the debt relief that he was able to increase spending on education and health.
He is survived by his wife Maureen and six children. Funeral plans were not immediately announced.

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Indonesia cuts Corby's sentence: official

DENPASAR, Indonesia (AFP) - - Indonesia on Sunday cut three months off the 20-year sentence imposed on Australian drug trafficker Schapelle Corby as part of independence day celebrations, an official said.

"Corby officially gets today on Indonesia's independence day a three-month cut off her sentence," Yon Suharyono, the head of the Kerobokan penitentiary where Corby is being held on Bali island, told reporters.
He said it was the second time authorities had cut the 31-year-old's sentence after it was reduced by three-months in 2006.
With today's remission, Corby is expected to be freed by 12 April 2024, he added.
The former beauty therapist was found guilty in 2005 of trafficking 4.1 kilograms (nine pounds) of marijuana to Indonesia. She claims international smugglers placed the drugs in her luggage.
Many Australians believe her claims of innocence and see the sentence as harsh.
Suharyono meanwhile said the only female member of the so-called "Bali Nine" ring of Australian heroin traffickers, Renae Lawrence, had also received a four month cut from her 20-year sentence.

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Bali bombers condemn Indonesian
govt as 'infidels'

CILACAP, Indonesia (AFP) - - Two of the three Bali bombers awaiting execution for the attacks that killed over 200 people on Wednesday

condemned Indonesian authorities as enemies of Islam.Convicted terrorists Ali Ghufron and Imam Samudra, who are on death row in an island prison off Central Java, released statements to the media through their lawyers as the government prepared their executions by firing squad."Dying as a martyr is my ambition, my dream, and my hope," Ghufron wrote."If God wills that I be executed by infidels, including hypocrites and apostates, because I am fighting jihad in the way of God, then that means that my greatest ambition has been achieved."Samudra, who chose the tourist nightspots targeted in the 2002 blasts on the holiday island of Bali, accused Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and the judiciary of being "forces of Satan."Meanwhile Attorney General Hendarman Supandji said Indonesia, the world's most populous Muslim country, had shelved plans to execute the bombers before the Islamic holy month of Ramadan starts in early September."Before, I thought the execution could be carried out before the fasting month, but not anymore," he said, adding, "I can't confirm when it will happen."Supandji said the delay was due to the fact that his office had not yet received Supreme Court confirmation the bombers had exhausted all appeals.The court in July rejected appeals by the Jemaah Islamiyah network militants of their convictions for the bombings, which killed mostly foreign holidaymakers, including 88 Australians.The bombers' lawyers said Wednesday they had written to the attorney general requesting a stay of execution pending a separate appeal to the Constitutional Court over the legality of using the firing squad for the execution.The militants' lawyers have said the bombers want to be beheaded."We appeal that the execution be called off until a judicial review has been completed," lawyer Achmad Michdan told AFP.Supandji said the delay in the execution until after Ramadan was unrelated to the request from the bombers' lawyers, which is handled under a separate judicial process.Defence lawyer Michdan said the bombers appeared to be in high spirits when visited by their legal team to discuss the appeal."They're not afraid and are ready to die as martyrs," he said.Executions in Indonesia are carried out by firing squad, usually at night in isolated and undisclosed locations. The death row prisoners are notified at least 72 hours in advance.Executions are usually not carried out during the holy month, when Muslims are urged to avoid violence and impure thoughts and to fast.

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