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Clooney and Pitt were on the red carpet for the premiere The Venice Film Festival has opened with the premiere of the Coen brothers’ dark comedy Burn After Reading. The film, starring George Clooney and Brad Pitt, is showing out of the competition at the annual event. Before the screening, the stars posed good-naturedly for pictures and signed autograph books for fans lining up along the red carpet. There are 21 movies competing for the coveted Golden Lion this year, with entries from Ethiopia and Turkey. The festival continues with a fly-on -the-wall film about fashion designer Valentino Garavani - billed as a glimpse into a world of bygone glamour. The movie was directed and produced by special correspondent for Vanity Fair magazine,

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FRANKFURT — Switzerland has released millions of dollars in assets belonging to Asif Ali Zardari, a leading Pakistani politician who is expected to be named the country’s president next week, Swiss authorities said.

Mr. Zardari’s accounts were frozen in 1997 at the request of Pakistani authorities investigating allegations that Mr. Zardari had received kickbacks while he was a government official and his wife, Benazir Bhutto, was prime minister. In June, Pakistan’s attorney general notified the Swiss that he was no longer investigating Mr. Zardari, who leads one of the country’s largest political parties. The attorney general wrote that neither Mr. Zardari nor Ms. Bhutto had done anything illegal, and that the charges had been politically motivated, the Swiss prosecutor general, Daniel Zappelli, said Wednesday in a telephone interview. As a result, the Swiss dropped a money-laundering case against Mr. Zardari and released his assets. “For money laundering to be proven, you have to show it was the product of a crime, but we don’t have any evidence for a crime committed in Pakistan,” Mr. Zappelli said. The value of the assets is about $60 million, Read more »

Russia harshly criticized Group of Seven members for their hypocrisy

G7 countries united against Russia and issued a joint statement in which they condemned Russia’s recognition of South Ossetia and Abkhazia.
Foreign ministers of Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the USA and Great Britain said that Russia had violated the territorial integrity in Georgia, as well as the resolution of the UN Security Council regulating relations between Georgia, Abkhazia and South Ossetia.

“Russia’s decision has called into question its commitment to peace and security in the Caucasus,” the counties’ foreign ministers said in a statement. “We deplore Russia ’s excessive use of military force in Georgia and its continued occupation of parts of Georgia.”

The ministers urged Russia to withdraw its troops from Georgia to the positions Read more »

Russian PM Vladimir Putin has accused the U.S. of orchestrating the conflict in Georgia.

Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin has accused the United States of orchestrating the conflict in Georgia to benefit one of its presidential election candidates.
In an exclusive interview with CNN’s Matthew Chance in the Black Sea city of Sochi Thursday, Putin said the U.S. had encouraged Georgia to attack the autonomous region of South Ossetia.

Putin told CNN it was done to benefit a presidential candidate — Republican John McCain and Democrat Barack Obama are competing to succeed George W. Bush.

Putin said Russia had no choice but to invade Georgia after some of its peacekeepers in South Ossetia were killed. He told Chance it was to avert a human calamity.

The former Russian president, still considered the most powerful man in the country, Read more »

A number of European nations think sanctions are a suitbale way of punishing Russia

French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner on Thursday, Aug. 28 said European nations were considering imposing sanctions against Russia while Germany called for an investigation into alleged abuses in Georgia.

Addressing journalists three days before an emergency EU summit in Brussels, Kouchner said “sanctions were being considered, as well as other means” to address the issue, but he did not specify.

“I, myself, would not anticipate sanctions (being imposed), while the meeting has not yet taken place,” said Kouchner. France is currently president of the Union and has been at the forefront of the EU’s attempts to resolve the crisis.

It was the first time France has brought up the possibility of sanctions against Read more »

Russia recognised two rebel regions of Georgia as independent states, driving up tension in the volatile Caucasus and putting Moscow on a collision course with the West.

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said Tbilisi’s desire to seize back Abkhazia and South Ossetia by force had killed all hopes for their peaceful co-existence in one state with Georgia.

But, leading a chorus of Western condemnation of the move, US President George W Bush said the two regions were part of Georgia and “they must remain so”.

“Russia’s action only exacerbates tensions and complicates diplomatic negotiations,” Read more »

The U.S. Coast Guard cutter Dallas arrives in the Georgian port of Batumi.

A U.S. Coast Guard ship carrying humanitarian aid docked in the Georgian Black Sea port of Batumi Wednesday, as Georgia’s Western allies renewed their criticism of Russia amid escalating tensions.
The cutter Dallas bypassed its original destination, the Georgian port of Poti, which is controlled by Russian troops still in the country despite a cease-fire deal to end conflict between the two countries.

In another development Wednesday, Georgia has recalled some of its diplomatic staff from its Moscow embassy, Russia’s foreign ministry said.

The arrival of the Dallas came as Western leaders renewed criticism of Russian President Dmitry Medvedev’s move Tuesday to recognize the independence of two Georgian breakaway provinces, Abkhazia and South Ossetia, over which Georgia Read more »