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TBILISI-Russian troops and tanks were still deployed in several areas of Georgia on Tuesday, apparently defying pressure from the West to withdraw quickly. Armed Georgian policemen and Russian soldiers guarded separate checkpoints only a few hundred meters apart in the village of Igoeti in central Georgia, about 45 km (28 miles)from the Georgian capital, Tbilisi.Russia's Defense Ministry has said the army's withdrawal from Georgia has started, but on Monday a Reuters correspondent who traveled to the central town of Gori saw little evidence of a pullout from the area.The conflict began 10 days ago when Georgian forces tried earlier this month to recapture South Ossetia, which broke free from Tbilisi in a war during the 1990s. Russia launched an overwhelming counterattack to support the separatists. The Russian attack-its biggest military deployment outside its borders since the 1991 fall of the Soviet Union-included air strikes on economic targets deep inside Georgia, forcing the Georgian army into retreat, and shocked the West.The United States and France on Monday urged a speedy Russian withdrawal in line with a French-mediated ceasefire accord. This and other similar appeals have had no visible impact as Moscow has declined to set a pullout timetable.A senior U.S. official said there were no signs yet that the Russian forces had begun to leave. Georgia said they were broadening their presence."I hope the world has woken up to what is going on. The Russians should get out of my country," Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili told reporters during a Tbilisi church service late on Monday. "The worst thing the world could do would be to compromise and show weakness."To read more go to:
As in the days of Noah...
