By Matthew Lee and Anne Gearan

Georgia's president grudgingly signed a truce with Russia Friday, even as he denounced the Russians as invading barbarians and accused the West of all but encouraging them to overrun his country. A stone-faced Condoleezza Rice, standing alongside, said Russian troops must withdraw immediately from their smaller neighbor.

President Bush talked tough, too, accusing the Russians of "bullying and intimidation," but neither he nor Rice said what the U.S. might do if Russia ignored them.

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev's press office had no information Friday night on whether he had signed the cease-fire agreement. Russia's foreign minister assured Rice later that his country would implement the deal "faithfully," a U.S. official said. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because Rice's conversation was private, said Russia was likely to sign the deal Saturday.

U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice announced yesterday in Tbilisi, Georgia that a truce had been signed between the Russians and Georgians and insisted that Russian troops must withdraw from Georgia immediately.  (Photo by: U.S. Department of State)

As the secretary of state spoke in Tbilisi, Russian forces remained camped out just 25 miles away.   

Associated Press reporters had seen a convoy of some 50 Russian army trucks and armored personnel carriers roar without warning southeast from the city of Gori on Wednesday, some shouting they were heading to Tbilisi, the Georgian capital. But they veered into a field outside the town of Igoeti and set up camp conspicuously within sight of the road. The Russians were still visible there Friday.    ….continue reading

By Andy Sullivan

Thousands of protesters are expected to jam the streets of Denver and St. Paul at the Republican and Democratic conventions in a noisy counterpoint to the parties' carefully scripted speeches.

In St. Paul, where John McCain will accept the Republican nomination early next month, anti-war and anti-abortion activists could be joined in the streets by off-duty cops picketing for higher pay, while self-described anarchists aim to paralyze the city.

In Denver, where Barack Obama will accept the Democratic nomination later this month, the City Council recently outlawed the possession of "noxious substances" after a councilman warned that activists could use buckets of urine or feces against police.

Activists say their plans don't involve human waste.

An aerial view  looking west from downtown Denver of  "Invesco Field at Mile High" where Barack Obama is slated to deliver his nomination acceptance speech before 75,000 people.

"The intent of this ordinance is to smear protesters and make them appear as if they're somehow criminal," organizer Glenn Spagnuolo said at a recent council hearing.

U.S. presidential nominating conventions historically have drawn activists of every stripe who hope to confront the political establishment and elbow their way into the media spotlight. The 2004 Republican convention in New York attracted more than 100,000 demonstrators.    ….continue reading

By Clare Trapasso

CONCORD, N.H.--Gov. John Lynch said he plans to seek federal aid to help repair about $10 million in damage from this month's flooding in central and northern New Hampshire.

He also plans to ask the Bush administration to reconsider providing aid to Merrimack and Strafford counties and individuals whose homes were destroyed or damaged by last month's tornado.

"In some cases these people lost their homes, everything they owned, including their memories," said Lynch of the tornado damage.

At a news conference on Friday, Lynch said the state estimates the floods and tornado caused about $20 million in damages.

Federal Emergency Management Agency officials say they believe Coos, Belknap and Grafton counties, damaged by floods, will meet requirements to receive federal aid.    ….continue reading

Earlier this week Phil Parr of FEMA explained disaster relief procedure and policy to Gov. Lynch, N.H. Emergency Management Director Chris Pope, Sen. Kathy Sgambati and Laconia Fire Chief Ken Erickson. during a tour of the Weirs Beach docks area severely damaged by flooding.  (Photo by Michael Kitch)

By Maeve Reston

The meeting between John McCain and Barack Obama today at Saddleback Church in Orange County will be brief -- a handshake and perhaps an exchange of pleasantries in between back-to-back interviews with the church's pastor, Rick Warren.

But for the 3,000 people in the audience and viewers watching live on cable television, this first onstage matchup will offer a preview of the three critically important presidential debates, the first next month at the University of Mississippi.

Though appearing separately, the candidates will field similar questions about their faith, abortion, same-sex marriage and humanitarian efforts abroad. It is a chance for both to hone their comments on sensitive topics and practice connecting with an audience not chosen by their tightly controlled campaigns.

Debate analysts say that despite their different campaigning styles, neither McCain nor Obama will head into the debate phase with a clear advantage. "There's not such a great disparity in talent," said Northeastern University professor Alan Schroeder, author of "Presidential Debates: Fifty Years of High-Risk TV." "This isn't Bill Clinton versus Bob Dole."    ….continue reading

By Spencer S. Hsu and Carrie Johnson

The Justice Department has proposed a new domestic spying measure that would make it easier for state and local police to collect intelli- gence about Americans, share the sensitive data with federal agencies and retain it for at least 10 years.

The proposed changes would revise the federal government's rules for police intelligence-gathering for the first time since 1993 and would apply to any of the nation's 18,000 state and local police agencies that receive roughly $1.6 billion each year in federal grants.

Quietly unveiled late last month, the proposal is part of a flurry of domestic intelligence changes issued and planned by the Bush administration in its waning months. They include a recent executive order that guides the reorganization of federal spy agencies and a pending Justice Department overhaul of FBI procedures for gathering intelligence and investigating terrorism cases within U.S. borders.   ….continue reading

By James Rosen

WASHINGTON -- There's no soul-gazing anymore between George W. Bush and Vladimir Putin.

A series of disputes over Iraq, Iran, energy, NATO expansion, renewed repression of dissent in Russia and now the invasion of Georgia have breached the trust that Bush famously boasted of having placed in Putin when their presidential tenures were young.

"Whatever personal word or assurance there might have been between them has been eroded," said James Collins, a former U.S. ambassador to Moscow.

Bush and Putin during happier days.

Such bitter relations seemed unimaginable back in June 2001, when, outside the Brdo Castle in Slovenia, President Bush lavished praise on Putin in words that instantly entered the American pop lexicon.

"I looked the man in the eye," Bush said. "I found him to be very straightforward and trustworthy. We had a very good dialogue. I was able to get a sense of his soul."    ….continue reading

By Dan Eggen and Robert Barnes

Standing behind a lectern in Michigan this week, with two trusted senators ready to do his bidding, John McCain seemed to forget for a moment that he was only running for president.

Asked about his tough rhetoric on the ongoing conflict in Georgia, McCain began: "If I may be so bold, there was another president . . ."

He caught himself and started again: "At one time, there was a president named Ronald Reagan who spoke very strongly about America's advocacy for democracy and freedom."

With his Democratic opponent on vacation in Hawaii, the senator from Arizona has been doing all he can in recent days to look like President McCain, particularly when it comes to the ongoing international crisis in Georgia.    ….continue reading

By Shaila Dewan

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. -- Ar- kansas has a Democratic governor, an overwhelm- ingly Democratic legislature, two Democratic United States senators and three Democratic Congressional representatives out of four.

The Democratic presidential primary here drew 80,000 more voters than the Republican one. And though the state voted for President Bush in 2000 and 2004, the two previous elections went handily to its native son, Bill Clinton.   ….continue reading

By Senator Kathy Sgambati

Food, heat or medicine? By all indications, we have a growing number of families and elderly people who will be asking themselves this question as winter approaches.

Several of us in the state Senate have held meetings with our local welfare officers and social service agencies to get a sense of the scope of the crisis we face this winter. As state leaders, we are doing everything we can to prepare and to find ways for aid to be efficiently and effectively delivered to those in need.

But no one expects the energy crisis to evaporate or for oil costs to fall back to the levels of prior years -- which makes energy efficiency and alternative energy that much more critical to our future.    ….continue reading

Senator Kathy Sgambati