Georgian troops pull back
TBILISI, Georgia, Aug. 13 (UPI) -- Russia reported withdrawal of Georgian troops from South Ossetia and denied it pushed further into Georgia.
While saying they observed a Georgian pullback, Russian officials denied a Georgian claim that 50 Russian tanks were in Gori, a Georgian community near the South Ossetia border, The Times of London reported.
"Georgian forces have begun their pullback toward Tbilisi but no active withdrawal has yet been observed," said Gen. Anatoly Nogovitsyn, deputy head of the Russian General Staff.
Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili told CNN Russian forces "are encroaching upon the capital" of Tbilisi, violating the agreement.
Witnesses in Gori told CNN they saw Russian tanks moving into Georgia on a road that leads to Tbilisi. The Russians' destination and objective were unclear, CNN said.
Saakashvili agreed to cease-fire language reportedly dictated by Russian leaders that included demands that Georgian forces withdraw completely from South Ossetia and that Georgian leaders agree not to use force to resolve the territorial dispute between the two nations. Russia also insisted the populations of South Ossetia and a second breakaway region, Abkhazia, be allowed to vote on whether they want to join Russia.
Western governments, meanwhile, said the five-day war altered the landscape in dealing with Russia, the British newspaper reported. The United States canceled a joint military exercise and British Foreign Secretary David Miliband said Europe should reassess its dealings with Russia after its "aggressive" behavior in Georgia.
Georgia action ices U.S.-Russia relations
WASHINGTON, Aug. 13 (UPI) -- Russia's military operations in Georgia fractured relations with the United States but how deep the fissures go depends on Moscow's next move, analysts said.
Experts told the McClatchy Newspapers group that the invasion seriously harmed relations between the United States and Russia and raised concerns that Moscow could try to re-exert influence over other parts of the former Soviet empire.
"Everyone is just shocked that Russia invaded another country," said Michael McFaul of Stanford University's Hoover Institution. "We're already on a slippery slope."
McFaul told McClatchy Russian leaders are "demonstrating that when push comes to shove, they can push and shove and we can't," he said. "They believe they can dominate this region."
Moreover, the United States needs Russia's help on several issues, including strengthening U.N. sanctions against Iran for its refusal to back away from its uranium enrichment work and ensuring North Korea abides by its denuclearization agreement.
"There is no question that the Bush administration will want to ... express its disapproval and to downgrade the relationship," Charles Kupchan, an ex-White House adviser now with the Council on Foreign Relations, told McClatchy. "But at the same time, the United States doesn't want to shoot itself in the foot."
Group: 'Dolphin-friendly' label misleading
LONDON, Aug. 13 (UPI) -- Greenpeace campaigners charge canned tuna labeled "dolphin-friendly" in countries like Great Britain is misleading due to destruction of overlooked species.
In a report titled "Tinned Tuna's Hidden Catch," the conservation group says while the labels indicate no dolphins were injured in the tuna-catching process, they do not inform the buyer of the full impact of such commercial fishing efforts, The Times of London reported Wednesday.
The campaigners say that 10 percent of the fish caught with fish aggregation devices and purse seine nets are not tuna. Such accidental catches result in nearly 100,000 tons of unwanted fish being caught each year worldwide.
The Greenpeace report does credit Sainsbury's supermarkets throughout Britain with offering the most sustainable tuna, while it names Princes manufacturing group as one of the least sustainable.
The Times said the conservationists are asking for a new label for tuna products that offers consumers a full description of the product's true impact on the marine ecosystem.
'Unabomber' objects to museum exhibit
WASHINGTON, Aug. 13 (UPI) -- Convicted "Unabomber" Ted Kaczynski says he objects to the FBI allowing a Washington museum to display his former cabin as part of an exhibit.
Kaczynski issued a handwritten letter to a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals in Sacramento, Calif., objecting to the display of his former Montana cabin at the Newseum, where it is being displayed as part of an exhibit examining the FBI's first 100 years and its relations with the press, The Washington Post reported Wednesday.
In the letter, first published Tuesday by Thesmokinggun.com, Kaczynski writes from his Colorado federal prison cell that he learned of the display from a Newseum advertisement in The Washington Post.
"Since the advertisement states that the cabin is 'FROM FBI VAULT,' it is clear that the government is responsible for the public exhibition of the cabin. This has obvious relevance to the victims' objection to publicity connected with the Unabom case," he wrote in the letter.
Kaczynski was convicted of killing three people and injuring 23 others from 1978 to 1995 with his homemade bombs.
