Anna Neistat, one of the researchers, said by telephone from Tskhinvali, the capital of South Ossetia, that they had found no evidence so far to substantiate Russian claims of widespread brutality by Georgian troops.
Human Rights Watch has been able to confirm fewer than 100 deaths — a far cry from the death toll of 2,000 regularly cited by Moscow.
“If the Russian government continues to claim that 2,000 people were killed as the result of the conflict, it’s time to provide some evidence, it’s time to provide some data, name, age, gender, the circumstances of death,” Ms. Neistat said.
This demand for accurate numbers is being talked about in the British press as well.
Meanwhile Russiatoday is reporting that people are still in hiding in some places in South Ossetia and that Russian rescuers are still pulling bodies out of the rubble. Pravda is also reporting on memorial services being held across Russia. Pravda’s headline though shows the limits of their English translation abilities:
Yea, a bit of a stretch, but due to an odd convergence of facts there is trouble with the International Space Station due to Russia’s recent foray into Georgia.
The US Space Shuttle is due to be retired in 2010, with manned flights to the space station being handed over to Russian Soyuz rockets. But the only way that can function is an exemption to the Iranian non-proliferation act (normally Russia would be guilty of violating that but the US grants an exemption for space operations). The current exemption expires in 2011 and chances of it being renewed are ‘dead on arrival’ according to senior aides on Capitol Hill. As our only way on board is the Russian ships until the Shuttle’s replacement is online, we’re looking at a period of limited access to the station until this gets sorted out.
So Senator Bill Nelson is starting to ask some questions–what are we going to do next? Nelson was in Afghanistan last week when the fighting broke out and his flight home had to be re-routed after Russia denied diplomatic overflight rights to his aircraft.
President Bush has decided to take advantage of the Russian / Georgian peace agreement allowing for humanitarian aid by sending in the first waves of US C-17 cargo planes loaded up with food and other necessary supplies. US Navy ships will also start offloading supplies (once they find a port I guess). Bush also called on Russia to “honor its word” and pull back its forces, something that is up in the air right now.
A convoy of freighters didn't look as menacing…
On the one hand, this looks pretty weak. I’m sure some of the troops are going to get ‘where were you’ questions while they are on the ground. But on the other, the sooner they can get in there the sooner they become ‘human shields’ basically–guys on the ground that the Russians will not attack. Get them into the airports and ports and hospitals and schools and suddenly bombing Georgia becomes far more costly for the Russians.
The EU is also planning on sending monitors, once they get the ok from the UN (though with Russia’s veto don’t hold your breath).
Sorry, I just was feeling a bit poetic about the Unibomber demanding to get his one room shack back from the FBI, which has put it ‘on loan’ with the Newseum in Washington, DC. Maybe he just wants a cut of the entrance fee royalty charged by the Newseum ($20 or so).
On ABC’s “This Week,” Richardson, auditioning to be Barack Obama’s running mate, disqualified himself. Clinging to the Obama campaign’s talking points like a drunk to a lamppost, Richardson said that this crisis proves the wisdom of Obama’s zest for diplomacy and that America should get the U.N. Security Council “to pass a strong resolution getting the Russians to show some restraint.” Apparently Richardson was ambassador to the United Nations for 19 months without noticing that Russia has a Security Council veto.
Obamatoids are already saying ‘but no, if we were REALLY diplomatic and charming we could get the Russian’s to go along with it’ (eventhough it calls them to the carpet for their actions).
And they say Texas is missing a village idiot?
BONUS: Richardson’s endorsement of Obama, slightly edited:
My initial ad revenues for my sites mirrored many others. $0.69 one month, $1.21 another. But in time, with links and cross linking, that starts to build and add up. Now the revenues are 100x that PER DAY! It comes. It just takes time and effort but it comes. I can’t tell you how many folks like to make spreadsheets with $100,000 in profits for month two of operation when in reality they’re lucky to even book a dollar in revenue.
Figured folks are tired of talking about the Olympics and Russia, so a bit of tech news.
The lines I saw at the Apple store this weekend are an indication demand is still pretty high, so Apple is now looking to find some additional retailers to carry the hyper-popular iPhone 3G. Today it was announced that Best Buy is going to start carrying the iPhone starting in September. Analysts are now projecting 4.7 million iPhones to be sold this quarter.
I’m still loving my phone. I’ve added a few more applications including Phone Saber and the Paper Football lite games. Pandora continues to be my number one used application.
Rumors are swirling that the ‘Silk Road’ solo dancer, who was to dance atop the ‘carpet’ during the Olympic Opening Ceremony, was seriously injured in a fall after a practice and may have permanent damage, possibly never walking again. Liu Yan, a famous Chinese dancer who was suspended above the swirling painting was in the hospital in Beijing following the rehersal. Details are still quite sketchy.
Beijing Olympic organizing committee spokesman Wang Wei acknowledged at the daily press conference today that she was hurt during the accident and remains hospitalized but declined to comment on the reports of her paralysis.
“This is a very private question. I understand that she was seriously injured, but I’m not sure whether she is paralyzed or not,” Wang said.
Not for use by children, because a child would get his butt kicked for riding something this funny looking
Washington DC has grown a select, privileged and elite group of world-renowned cities by adding a high tech ’smart bike’ program to ease transportation around the cities inner-core. Euro-loving DC-ite’s are feeling quite smug.
The bikes, which look nothing like anything any red-blooded American would want to ride, are positioned around DC with high tech credit card system to rent them. For an annual fee of $40 you can grab a bike at any of the downtown locations and peddle around. I’m not a big fan of these bikes. Mountain bikes would be a bit more rugged, and the smaller front wheel just screams ‘flip over me’. But I guess they have their reasons.
The bicycles seem to be located primarily downtown as DC is basically on a hill. If you head past the basic outline of the original city (GWU to Florida Avenue to Union Station) you’ll find that much of the city is on a slight incline. Riding to the NW Corner of the city is actually a nice workout as it is a slow and long uphill climb (making coming back into the city an absolute joy as you coast downhill for much of the way). One suspects if they had a station in upper NW it would never have any bikes, as they’d all be coasted back into the city.
The location and availability can be checked online but is presently broken. One wonders if they’ll get an iPhone application out soon that shows what’s available where. That would be a double-smug bonus. Using your iPhone to find a smartbike. Bonus points.
Anyway, as I’m not technically living in DC and did my stint biking around the inner core when I was a bicycle messenger, I suspect I’ll pass for awhile on the annual subscription. But we’ll see how it goes. If it get a few more cars off the road I’m not going to complain.
The tank convoy is probably composed of South Ossetian ‘volunteers’–basically bandits, running around in ‘donated’ tanks seeking to settle scores and loot and pillage. With the Georgian army basically in disarray, let alone the police, it’s going to get positively medieval in some of these areas. Guns will rule and the only protection will likely come from armed neighbors and ad hoc militias.
This sort of warfare is not known for their observance of the Geneva Convention or other rules of war. It’s likely the human rights abuses we’re going to see in the next few days will far and away exceed any of the ‘claimed’ abuses over the last week.
Yea, a bit of a stretch, but due to an odd convergence of facts there is trouble with the International Space Station due to Russia’s recent foray into Georgia. 
