In the height of winter, Russia has ceased all gas shipments to Europe through the Ukrainian pipelines. Some countries have been forced to close schools and factories to try to preserve enough gas to heat homes and keep people from freezing to death.

The spectacular rise in the price of oil over the past 2 years has been a bonanza for Russia. This new found wealth has seen more military spending and the political bluster to go with it. With the price of oil collapsing Russia may have blinked.

Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin supposedly told French President Nicolas Sarkozy that he wanted to hang the Georgian President Michael Saakashvili “by the balls” for starting the war in S. Ossetia.

A closer examination of the Russia-Georgia conflict of last summer, reveals a more complex picture of the conflict. It reveals that it was largely an energy war over who has access to the vast oil and natural gas reserves in the Caspian region.

With a semi-peaceful state going on between Georgia and Russia, a survivor of the conflict recounts what she claims really happened in Ossetia.

Dmitry Medvedev, Russia's president, ordered a tightening of security in Georgia's breakaway South Ossetia region after a bomb blamed by Moscow on Georgian special forces killed eight Russian troops.

An independent organization called factcheck.org researched "facts" purported by Barack Obama and John McCain in their first debate.

Transparency International’s 2008 Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) scores show Somalia and Iraq are the most corrupt countries in the world, with Denmark being the least corrupt.

President Mikheil Saakasvili’s former defense minister said Saakashvili had long planned a military strike to seize back the breakaway region of South Ossetia. But because of poor planning, he made it easy for Russia to retaliate.

When this writer heard that the Russians were leaving Georgia, an immediate note went to Beqa in Georgia. Then Beqa sent the real news of what is happening.