Georgia mutiny suspect shot dead
Georgian police have shot dead a man suspected of playing a key role in a mutiny at a military base earlier this month, the interior ministry has said. Gia Krialashvili was killed in a shoot-out with police as they tried to arrest him in a western suburb of Tbilisi, it said. Two other suspects were wounded. All three men have military backgrounds and are suspected of masterminding the brief mutiny at Mukhrovani on 5 May.
Georgia - Saakashvili: ‘Shame on Eurovision’
President Saakashvili of Georgia said that organizers of Eurovision song contest denied the Georgian entry for “political motives.” Georgia withdrew from Eurovision after the organizer, European Broadcasting Union (EBU), told Georgia to revise the lyrics of its entry, ‘We Don't Wanna Put In’. Meanwhile, Georgia organized its music festival Tbilisi Open Air-Alter/Vision, or an alternative to Eurovision. The "Saakashvili festival", which will feature twenty acts from ten countries, opens on Friday evening. Organizers said originally the festival was planned for June, but decided to move it forward to coincide with Eurovision in Moscow.
Note EU-Digest: This once again is pure immature behavior of President Saakashvili, which the world has now seen many times over when he does not get his way. Unfortunately this kind of behavior reflects negatively on Georgia as a nation.
Georgian, Polish Presidents Say They Were Shot At Near Russian Checkpoint - "Most people doubt the validity of the report" - by P.P.Pan
The presidents of Georgia and Poland said they encountered gunfire while attempting to visit a Russian checkpoint near the South Ossetian border on Sunday, an assertion Russia immediately denied and described as a provocation and "wishful thinking."
"It seems to be another attempt by Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili to shore-up his dwindling credibility at home and in the EU", said a European diplomat stationed in Georgia.
Georgia's Saakashvili wins re-election - by Roman Olearchyk, Catherine Belton,Stefan Wagstyl
Mikhail Saakashvili was re-elected as Georgia's president with 52.8 per cent of the vote, election officials said on Sunday night. The results threatened to inflame tensions in the former Soviet republic, where the opposition has accused his government of falsifying the vote. His main contender, Levan Gachechiladze, received 27 per cent of the ballots in Saturday's election, said Levan Tarkhnishvili, head of the Central Election Commission. Mr Tarkhnishvili said the tally was based on results from nearly all precincts in Georgia, excluding Georgian military personnel serving in peacekeeping operation in Kosovo and Iraq.
