HELL ON AIR

Spain began three days of mourning Thursday for the 153 people who died when a jetliner crashed shortly after takeoff in the nation's worst air disaster in nearly 25 years.
Only 19 people survived Wednesday's crash of a Spanair plane bound for the Canary Islands.
Development Minister Magdalana Alvarez said Thursday that 14 bodies have been identified so far. She said the process could take several days because many bodies were burned beyond recognition and forensic teams are using DNA techniques.
Flags in Madrid flew at half-staff and a silent vigil was planned for noon. The king and queen planned to visit a makeshift morgue where relatives were waiting to claim the remains of their loved ones.
Some mourners spent the whole night at the morgue.
Spanair said it did not know the cause of the crash.
The Spanish newspaper El Pais said one of the two engines failed and may have caught fire during takeoff. La Vanguardia said witnesses saw the plane's left engine explode and catch fire before the aircraft went down.
Experts said this kind of plane is designed to fly with just one engine in an emergency, raising questions over whether something else may have caused the crash.
Spanair confirmed Thursday that an MD-82 was forced to make an emergency landing Saturday on a flight from Lanzarote in the Canary Islands to Madrid because of problems with both of its engines.
The plane landed in the nearby island of Gran Canaria, the destination of Wednesday's flight.
A company official speaking on condition of anonymity said he did not know if the same plane was involved in both cases. After the crash, the company now has eight MD82s.
The airline said the pilot of the U.S.-built MD-82 airliner initially reported a problem with a gauge that measures temperature outside the plane. The takeoff was delayed while the problem was repaired.
During the second takeoff attempt, the plane crashed at the end of the runway, burning and largely disintegrating.
From Washington, the National Transportation Safety Board said it will send a team of investigators to assist in the probe.
The morgue has been set up at Madrid's main convention center — the same facility used for relatives to identify bodies after the March 11, 2004 Islamic terror attacks that killed 191 people on Madrid commuter trains.
Spanair chartered a plane in the Canary Islands to fly in relatives of people killed in the crash.
Spanair is Spain's second largest airline, after Iberia. It is a money-loser, though, and owner SAS put it up for sale more than a year ago, although it failed to find a buyer.
A cost-saving plan calls for withdrawing older, less fuel-efficient planes like some of its MD-82s, eliminating some routes and laying off a third of its 3,000-member workforce.
Hours before the crash, the Spanish pilots union SEPLA said Spanair pilots might go on strike to protest uncertainty over their future. The union statement was withdrawn after the crash.

Spanair says the plane that crashed in Madrid experienced overheating in an air intake valve prior to a first attempt at takeoff. It is not clear if this had anything to do with the crash that killed 153 of the 172 people aboard. Company spokesman Javier Mendoza says the device, called an air intake probe, was reporting overheating in the front of the plane under the cockpit.
He said Thursday that technicians corrected the problem by "de-energizing" the probe, or turning it off. He says this is standard procedure.
Spanair says the plane was cleared by company technicians after the problem was fixed. The plane crashed on its second attempt to take off.

Distraught relatives of the 153 victims of the Madrid holiday jet disaster struggled Thursday to identify burned body parts as investigators scoured the wreckage for clues. Cranes lifted debris of the Spanair MD-82 from a field next to the Madrid-Barajas airport runway as Spanish media highlighted the financial problems and cost-cutting measures carried out by the budget carrier.
Thousands of people held silent tributes to the victims in Madrid and other cities while three days of national mourning has been declared.
"Inferno at Barajas," was the headline used by newspapers to describe the crash of the jet, carrying 162 passengers -- including two babies and 20 other children -- and 10 crew on Wednesday afternoon.
Having returned to the terminal once because of a technical problem, the jet was taking off for Las Palmas in the Canary Islands when it veered to the right of the runway before breaking up in flames.
Transport Minister Magdalena Alvarez said the jet had got about 50 metres (200 feet) off the ground before it came down. She said 153 people were killed and 19 injured, four of whom remain in "very serious" condition.
The bodies were taken to a Madrid congress centre, where the 191 victims of the March 2004 Madrid train bombing were also placed.
A special flight brought friends and family members from Las Palmas, and were taken to the makeshift morgue to identify the remains.
One Red Cross psychologist described the atmosphere was "calm" but the identification process was slow.
Alvarez said it would take two days to identify all the victims. "Up to now they have been identified with their fingerprints and in certain cases by there will have to be DNA tests," she said.
One of the 19 survivors recalled seeing bodies scattered everywhere as she escaped the burning wreckage.
"I lifted my head and all I saw were scattered bodies," Ligia Palomino, a doctor, told El Pais newspaper.
Palomino said she was only semi-conscious after the crash but woke up when a fuel tank exploded.
The authorities did not immediately confirm media reports that the left engine was on fire during takeoff.
Some experts said the fire in the engine may not be enough to explain the accident .
Spanish media said the pilot had earlier signaled a malfunction in an exterior temperature gauge.
Alvarez said the plane had taxied to the runway once, before turning back because of a technical problem. Spanair maintenance staff then cleared the aircraft for takeoff.
Asked by national radio whether the company may be negligent, she said "I dare not say that."
But Spanish media criticised the airline.
"The crisis at Spanair led to a tragedy with 153 dead," El Mundo said on its front page. "The technical inspection by Spanair could have committed a fatal error."
Spanair, Spain's second largest airline, which is owned by Scandinavian carrier SAS, recently proposed shedding almost a quarter of its 4,000 staff because of the fuel price rise crisis and reduced demand. Its pilots had threatened a strike over conditions.
Spanair was founded in 1986 and says it has carried more than 104 million passengers from about 100 European destinations since then. It has a fleet of 65 jets.
SAS had put Spanair on the block earlier this year but announced in June that it was abandoning the sale plans due to the slowdown in the aviation sector.
The two black boxes were found and were to be analysed, as investigators scoured the wreckage for clues.
A spokeswoman at Barajas airport meanwhile said operations returned to normal on Thursday after delays and cancellations.
Spanair released the list of passengers late Wednesday, but not their nationalities.
Spanish media said four Germans, two Swedes, a Chilean and a Colombian were among the survivors. Authorities in Paris said three French nationals were killed.
The accident was Spain's worst plane disaster since a Boeing 747 belonging to Colombian airline Avianca crashed in Madrid in 1983 killing 180 and the deadliest in Europe since a Russian Tupolev crashed in Ukraine in 2006 killing 170.
The most deadly accident in the history of civil aviation occurred in Spain when two Boeing 747s collided at Tenerife airport in the Canary Islands on March 27, 1977, killing 583 people.
At the Beijing Olympics, Spanish sailors Fernando Echavarri and Anton Paz donned black armbands after winning gold medals to honour the disaster dead.
The duo climbed the podium wearing a black armband each despite Spanish media reporting that the International Olympic Committee (IOC) had banned arm bands as well as the flying of the national flag at half-mast at the Spanish section of the Athletes Village.

JUMP, BABY, JUMP

FAST, FAST

Pure speed. It emanated from those loping, waist-high strides 6-foot-5 Usain Bolt churned with his golden spikes — untied lace and all — to win the 100-meter Olympic gold medal and break his own world record Saturday night.

It was there for all to see, too, in the "Is that really possible?!" gap of several feet between the Jamaican and the rest of the field at the finish. And, of course, in those bright, yellow numbers on the red-and-black trackside clock blaring the official time: 9.69 seconds.
Pure joy.
It radiated from Usain Bolt's wide eyes as he playfully nudged an opponent during the prerace stroll through the stadium hallways, and, moments later, when he clowned with one of the volunteers at the start line before handing her his black backpack.
It was there for all to see, too, in his "How good am I?!" mugging for the cameras with about 20 meters to go, already certain victory was steps away — outstretched arms with palms up, slap to his chest while taking the last of his oh-so-long 41 strides, leaning back to enjoy the moment instead of leaning forward in effort. And in the arms-swaying dance moves he showed off as reggae music flowed from the loudspeakers to help him celebrate.
"I was having fun," Bolt said. "That's just me — I like to have fun."
Oh, did he have a blast on this night, making obvious he is head-and-shoulders above the competition — and not merely because he really is head-and-shoulders above the competition, towering above foes in an event where no world record-holder over the last two decades has been this tall and where some didn't even reach 6 feet.
Those lanky legs allow Bolt to cover more ground, but his turnover for each stride also takes longer. He might just be turning the dash into a big man's event, though.
Bolt's sudden emergence truly began May 5 in Jamaica, when he ran 9.76 seconds, just shy of countryman Asafa Powell's then-record 9.74. This was someone to watch. Then, on May 31 in New York City, Bolt broke Powell's mark by finishing in 9.72.
Now that is gone, too, and Bolt's 0.20-second margin of victory matched the largest in an Olympic 100 final over the last 40 years.
"He's just a phenomenal athlete," said Trinidad and Tobago's Richard Thompson, the NCAA champion from LSU who won the silver by finishing in 9.89, "and I don't think anyone would have beaten him with a run like that today."
Certainly not. Bolt turned in as transcendent a show as Olympic track and field has seen in years, perhaps dating to Michael Johnson's world-record 19.32 seconds in the 200 meters at the 1996 Atlanta Games.
That mark could be next for Bolt, who considers the 200 his specialty. The heats for that event begin Monday, and the final is Wednesday, a day before his 22nd birthday.
"It definitely brings track back," said Walter Dix of the United States, the bronze medalist in 9.91.
Back to the front pages. Back from being ignored, spurned even, after a series of drug cases that stripped medals and credibility.
It's all particularly remarkable when you consider that Bolt — from the same yam-farming Trelawny parish in his Caribbean nation that was home to Ben Johnson — only began competing in the dash 13 months ago.
"I told you all I was going to be No. 1," Bolt said, "and I did just that."
Even though his left shoelace was dangling, the knot undone. Even though he skidded out of the starting blocks with the seventh-slowest reaction time in the eight-man final. Even though as recently as this month, Bolt left some doubt as to whether he would even contest the 100 in Beijing, because he didn't want to disrupt his preparation for the 200.
The talk for weeks has been about how Bolt might hold up in the four-round format at the Olympics, and how he'd do squaring off against Powell and reigning world champion Tyson Gay of the United States.
That didn't pan out. Gay, who acknowledged he paid for being sidelined the past 1 1/2 months after injuring his left hamstring at the U.S. Olympic trials, didn't even make the final, finishing fifth in his semi. Powell, meanwhile, was fifth in the final for a second consecutive Olympics, adding to his reputation for flopping on the big stage.
"Usain was spectacular," Powell said. "He was definitely untouchable tonight. He could have gone a lot faster if he had run straight through the line."
How low might Bolt be able to push that time?
9.65?
9.59?
"Anything is possible. The human body is changing, so you never know," Bolt said. "I aim just to win, but when I saw the replay, I was amazed."
So was everyone else: the competition, if you can really use that term to describe the other runners; the 91,000 or so fans whose photo flashes filled the still night air; the millions watching on TV.
Years from now, people will look at the images from the finish of the men's 100 meters at the 2008 Olympics and ask: Was Usain Bolt given a head start?
Was it possible for one man to end up that far ahead of seven other men, seven other elite sprinters, the best the world has to offer?
It was, after all, the first Olympic 100 in which six men finished in under 10 seconds. One of them, sixth-place finisher Michael Frater of Jamaica, described Bolt's new record this way: "No one will get near it."
Well, perhaps no one other than Bolt.
There were other events on this clear night, other medals awarded. Nataliia Dobrynska of Ukraine won the heptathlon, with Hyleas Fountain earning a bronze for the first U.S. medal in that event since 1992. Valerie Vili won the women's shot put, giving New Zealand its first Olympic gold medal in track and field since 1976. The favorites advanced to Sunday's semifinals in the women's 100.
Ho-hum.
Nothing that could help restore some of track and field's luster the way a dazzling sprinter can.
His coach wanted Bolt to add the 400 to his repertoire instead of the 100, figuring height would help at the longer distance. But Bolt insisted on taking on the shorter event, in part, he admits, because it's, well, shorter. Less taxing. Less time spent running, sweating, working out.
Bolt enjoys cars — speed, clearly, is what drives the guy — and, like many twentysomethings, he likes to go out with pals and dance. He's been frank about realizing he needed to go to the gym more and party less to fulfill the potential that's been evident since he became the youngest-ever male world junior champion in the 200 at age 15.
In some ways, he still is a kid at heart. His Saturday morning began with some television-watching, followed by some chicken-nugget-eating. Then he turned the TV back on, before deciding to take a three-hour nap.
In the evening, a very special 9.69 seconds — read those numbers again, slowly — changed his life. After he kissed those shoes of his, and posed for photo after photo, Bolt finally walked barefoot off the rust-colored track that will always be meaningful to him and his sport. He was handed a telephone: Jamaican Prime Minister Bruce Golding was on the line.
Later, after Bolt left the stadium's drug-testing area, he was mobbed by Olympics volunteers who wanted autographs on scraps of paper or their sky-blue shirts. They wanted photos of him.
And then along came a car and driver, and Bolt slid into the front seat.
The "World's Fastest Man" is enjoying the ride.

NOT A GAME

Russian troops that had poured into the disputed territory of South Ossetia moved to the enclave’s boundary with Georgia on Sunday, witnesses said, as the conflict appeared to be developing into the worst clashes between Russia and a foreign military since the invasion of Afghanistan in 1979.
Overnight, Russia landed ground troops off of warships into the disputed territory of Abkhazia and broadened its bombing campaign to the Georgian capital’s airport.
The Organization on Security and Cooperation in Europe said Georgia was ready to negotiate a ceasefire, but a top Russian defense official said no formal offer had been received.
Georgian authorities said Sunday morning that they expect Russian attacks to come on three fronts — from Gali and Zugdidi, two spots on the Abkhazian border, and from Ossetia, according to Gigi Ugulada, the mayor of Tbilisi. They also expect more bombing on the Kodori Gorge, the only part of Abkhazia that remains under Georgian control.
Witness reports from the border between South Ossetia and Georgia suggested that Russian forces had moved up to the winding, disputed boundary line.
But a top Russian defense official said Sunday that Russia had no immediate plans to move troops into Georgia.
“We don’t intend to take the initiative to escalate the conflict at this time,” Colonel General Anatoly Nogovitsyn said when asked if Russia intended to move troops into Georgian territory from Abkhazia or South Ossetia.
Still, a reporter in the border area saw artillery being fired from Russian-controlled areas into Georgian territory near the villages of Eredvy and Prisi, about two miles from the South Ossetian capital of Tskhinvali. Grassy fields were burning in the villages and clouds of dust rose with the impact of the shells.
Russian TV also reported that Russia’s 58th Army was at the southern border of South Ossetia.
A refugee who said he was fleeing from Kakhvi, which he said was a Georgian-controlled enclave squeezed between parts of South Ossetia along the border, said that Russian forces were in the village.
He said that he ran away when Russian soldiers came to his house. Along the road, refugees carried their possessions in wheelbarrows and plastic bags toward the Georgian city of Gori.
The two sides may have different definitions of where the border with Georgia lies. The official borders of the administrative region of South Ossetia are larger than the area traditionally held by pro-Russian separatists, so if Russia occupied the whole administrative region it would be moving into areas normally held by Georgia.
An official at Georgia’s Interior Ministry, Shota Utiashvili, said Sunday that Georgian troops had completely withdrawn from South Ossetia.
Georgian soldiers leaving the area described said they had been ordered early Sunday morning to leave Tskhinvali, the South Ossetian capital, at about 1:30 a.m.
Sergeant Georgy Diakonoshvili, leaving South Ossetia with his Georgian tank crew, said they had been exchanging fire with Russian tanks until their unit of 10 tanks was ordered to withdraw at 1:30 a.m. One infantryman with his unit was killed.
Near the border, Georgian soldiers were bewildered that they had been pushed out. Exhausted troops, their faces covered with stubble, said they were angry at the United States and EU for not coming to Georgia’s aid.
A Georgian major who only gave his name as Georgy, said, “Over the past few years I lived in a democratic country, and I was happy. Now America and the European Union spit on us.” He was driving an armored truck out of South Ossetia.
Shortly before dawn on Sunday, Georgia’s Interior Ministry said that Russian bombers had begun striking the airport at Tbilisi. The explosions could be heard in the city, Utiashvili said.
He said that Russia had built up large forces in Abkhazia and South Ossetia — breakaway regions that have support from Moscow — including as many as 300 artillery pieces in South Ossetia alone. Russian forces, he said, were also poised just over the border at Larsi, a checkpoint, where they could open a third line of ground attack.
“We are not at war with the Georgian state,” Nogovitsyn, the Russian defense official, said. But he said Russia would send as many reinforcements as necessary to “the zone of conflict.”
Ambassador Heikki Talvitie, the Special Envoy of the Chairman of the Organization on Security and Cooperation in Europe, said the Georgian side is “ready to negotiate on a cease-fire, but they are waiting for an answer from the Russian side. OSCE is negotiating to guarantee safe passage out of the conflict zone,” he said, “including for the Georgian population, who find themselves in Russian-held territory.”
“There is no agreement, and we need a cease-fire,” he said.
As Russia moved more forces into the region and continued aerial bombing, it appeared determined to occupy both South Ossetia and Abkhazia.
Georgia’s president, Mikheil Saakashvili, said Russia’s ambitions were even more extensive. He declared that Georgia was in a state of war, and said in an interview that Russia was planning to seize sea ports and an oil pipeline and to overthrow his government.
Prime Minister Vladimir V. Putin of Russia left the Olympics in China and arrived Saturday evening in Vladikavkaz, a city in southern Russia just over the border. State-controlled news broadcasts showed Mr. Putin meeting generals, suggesting that he was directly in charge of military operations, eclipsing the authority of President Dmitri A. Medvedev.
Mr. Putin said that dozens of people had been killed in South Ossetia and hundreds wounded, and tens of thousands were reported to be fleeing. Georgia’s health minister said that more than 80 people had been killed, including 40 civilians who died in airstrikes in Gori, a city north of Tbilisi. Another Georgian official said at least 800 people, almost all of them civilians, had been injured. Each side’s figures were impossible to confirm independently, as was an earlier claim released by South Ossetians and repeated by some Russian officials that 1,500 people had been killed in the territory.
The fighting, and the Kremlin’s confidence in the face of Western outcry, had wide international implications, as both Russian and Georgian officials placed it squarely in the context of renewed cold war-style tensions and an East-West struggle for regional influence.
Western influence over Russia appeared minimal. The East and West were stuck in diplomatic impasse, even as reports of heavy civilian casualties indicated that the humanitarian toll was climbing. The United Nations Security Council was meeting Saturday to discuss the crisis, but with no resolution.
Georgian officials said their only way out of the conflict was for the United States to step in, but with American military intervention unlikely, they were hoping for the West to exert diplomatic pressure to stop the Russian attacks.
The Bush administration bluntly warned Russia to cease its attacks or face a deterioration of relations. James F. Jeffrey, the deputy national security adviser, traveling with President Bush in Beijing, said that the administration was concerned about reports that Russian ground forces were attacking Georgian positions on the border with Abkhazia and near the capital, while moving its Black Sea fleet into positions off Georgia for what could be a naval blockage. He said that “every escalatory step is a further problem,” and urged the Russians to respond favorably to Georgia’s pullback of forces from South Ossetia.
“We have made it clear to the Russians that if the disproportionate and dangerous escalation on the Russian side continues, that this will have a significant, long-term impact on U.S.-Russian relations,” Mr. Jeffrey said.
The White House press secretary, Dana M. Perino, said that President Bush would speak this evening to Nicholas Sarkozy of France, in his capacity as current head of the European Union.
Senior European Union officials were adamant on Saturday that both Russia and Georgia were to blame for the recent escalation of the conflict, and that finger-pointing was counterproductive. Cristina Gallack, a spokeswoman Javier Solana, the European Union’s foreign policy chief, said that the Union’s immediate objective was to reach a cease-fire, and European envoys were reported to be en route to the region.
Other Western officials monitored the movements with alarm. “The record is crystal clear,” said a Western official, who spoke on condition of anonymity. “Russia has launched a full-scale military operation, on air, land and sea. We have entered a totally new realm — politically, legally and diplomatically.”
Russia appeared to be opening a second front in Abkhazia, to the west of South Ossetia, and to be aiming to drive Georgian troops from the Kodori Gorge, a small mountainous area in Abkhazia that Georgia reclaimed by force in 2006. Georgian officials said 12 Russian jets were bombing the area, shortly after a Western official said United Nations peacekeepers had withdrawn from the area at the request of Abkhazia’s de facto government.
Russia also notified Western governments that it was moving ships of its Black Sea fleet to Ochamchire, a port on the Abkhaz coast. Georgian officials said they expected Russian troops to land there.
Mr. Putin made clear that Russia now viewed Georgian claims over the breakaway regions to be invalid, and that Russia had no intention of withdrawing. “There is almost no way we can imagine a return to the status quo,” he said in remarks on Russian state television.
Mr. Saakashivili, the Georgian president, said Russia’s oil riches and desire to assert economic leverage over Europe and the West had emboldened Kremlin country to attack. Georgia is a transit country for oil and natural gas exports from the former Soviet Union that threatens Russia’s near monopoly.
“They need control of energy routes,” Mr. Saakashvili said. “They need sea ports. They need transportation infrastructure. And primarily, they want to get rid of us. “
In turn, Russian officials said that ties to the United States had emboldened Mr. Saakashvili, who wants to make Georgia part of NATO, into sparking the conflict. But there were signs that Mr. Saakashvili was feeling the limits of how much American help he could expect for his country’s assistance in the war in Iraq.
Pentagon officials said late on Friday that Georgia had requested assistance in airlifting home the approximately 2,000 Georgian troops now in Iraq. The request was under review, and standard procedures would indicate that the United States government would honor the request, officials said.
Alexander Lomaya, secretary of Georgia’s National Security Council, said conflict arose because Russia sought to “thwart its neighbors’ movement toward Western society and Western values” and framed the stakes in expansive terms that were reminiscent of the cold war.
“If the world is not able to stop Russia here, then Russian tanks and Russian paratroopers can appear in every European capital,” he said. Russian officials, however, blamed outside meddling for stoking the conflict, and said their goals were narrow.
President Medvedev said Russia was acting to restore peace and protect its citizens and peacekeeping troops who had come under Georgian attack.
In a news conference, Foreign Minister Sergey V. Lavrov of Russia said Georgian attacks on what he called “Russian citizens” in South Ossetia “amounted to ethnic cleansing.” He reserved some of his harshest language for Georgia’s allies, referring at one point to “Mr. Saakashvili and his Western friends” — an apparent reference to the United States, which has provided Georgia with extensive military aid since Mr. Saakashvili took office in 2004.
With Russia’s Black Sea fleet, warplanes and tanks bearing down on the small, mountainous country, Georgian officials acknowledged they were taken by surprise by the intensity of the Russian response.
But Russia, too, found itself facing resistance. Russia acknowledged that Georgian forces had shot down two Russian warplanes, while Mr. Lomaya said the Georgians had destroyed 10 Russian jets.
A close ally of Mr. Saakashvili’s, Gigo Bokarianot, a Parliament member, said Georgia was shifting its tactics to focus on air defenses. In Gori, people cheered as a Russian pilot ejected from an airplane that was shot down. Georgian television later showed a pilot’s bloody helmet and said a pilot had been captured.
Russian strategic bombers were seen over Georgia for the first time in the three-day conflict. Georgian tanks attacked the lone road linking South Ossetia to Russia, trying to cut off Russian supply routes. But Russia continued to flow forces into Georgia, and appeared on track to at least double the number of troops there. Georgian officials said at least 2,500 Russian troops were already in South Ossetia.
Along a military highway entering Georgia from Russia, military transports and armored vehicles were backed up for several miles. They were flying both Russian flags and plain red flags. The mood was buoyant.
“I am going to help our people,” said Zelimkhan Gagiev, 27, an irregular fighter in a maroon four-wheel drive who said he had family trapped in Tskhinvali. “If I can, I’ll fight to the death.”
The columns were headed to the Roki Tunnel, which gives access to South Ossetia.


Civilians came under fire on both sides. Georgian troops shelled the South Ossetian capital, Tskhinvali, with artillery. Russian television footage showed damaged houses and apartment buildings.
Russian warplanes struck at least five Georgian cities. Witnesses said they struck a train station in Tsenakhi, five apartment buildings in Gori, and the Black Sea port of Poti.
Georgian officials said that Russian warplanes had attacked the major Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan oil pipeline, operated by British Petroleum, that carries oil to the West from Asia, but that the pipeline had not been struck.
The Russian authorities said their forces had retaken the South Ossetian capital from Georgian control during the morning hours, while Georgian officials said they had withdrawn from the area voluntarily. But heavy fighting resumed there later Saturday, with Georgian tanks and heavy artillery attacking from the south, Russian television reported.
Twelve Russian troops were killed, according to Anatoly Nogovitsyn, a colonel general in the Ministry of Defense. When asked whether Russia was in a state of war with Georgia, General Nogovitsyn said it was not.
Roads were clogged with refugees, as South Ossetians fled north into Russia and Georgians from Gori fled southeast to Tblisi. Russia said 30,000 people had fled South Ossetia.