Haven’t checked in on Georgia for a while. What a mess.

• Georgia says foils rebellion, accuses Russia
• GEORGIA: TBILISI PROTESTS PRODUCE A MOBILE PARLIAMENT
• Georgian opposition extends protests to Tbilisi City Hall
• Russia Digs In Alongside Breakaway Territories

The European Union has finally decided that it can’t accomplish anything in the Middle East, so maybe it should pay some attention to, y’know, Europe:

• European Union to Reach Out to 6 Former Soviet States in Meeting

“There are new priorities on the agenda which were not so obvious last year, including the need to stabilize these countries, which are moving from one crisis to another,” said Nicu Popescu, a research fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations. “The focus is less on structural adjustments or institution-building and more on crisis management.”

And file this one under “what could possibly go wrong?”

• Russia Plans to Power Arctic Oil Drilling With Floating Nuclear Plants

• Tensions Grow in Georgia Over Accusations of a Plot
• 8 Georgian opposition members to remain in custody
• Russia to help defend Abkhazia, S. Ossetia borders

• Liquid War: Postcard from Pipelineistan

Global financial crisis or not, oil and natural gas are the long-term keys to an inexorable transfer of economic power from the West to Asia. Those who control Pipelineistan — and despite all the dreaming and planning that’s gone on there, it’s unlikely to be Washington — will have the upper hand in whatever’s to come, and there’s not a terrorist in the world, or even a long war, that can change that.

And this:

• Russian subs ‘to back Arctic claims’

The Alternate History Theme Park Where Dinosaurs Fought in the Civil War

Hubble snaps planet orbiting distant star: First visible-light image of gravitationally-bound world

The Hubble space telescope has captured the first visible-light image of an exoplanet orbiting a star – a body no greater than three Jupiter masses, gravitationally-bound to Fomalhaut in the constellation Piscis Australis.

Mission Accomplished: India fifth in world to reach moon
High-Performance Ares Rocket Engine Passes Review
Shuttle Endeavour links with space station

Policeman Killed Near Abkhazia
EU monitors in Georgia ‘come under fire near Abkhazia’
U.S. studies another path for Georgia to join NATO

Explosive charge thrown at EU mission in Kosovo
EU’s Kosovo Mission In Doubt After Rejection Of UN Proposal
Aiming to partition Kosovo, Tadic reveals his Janus-like face

Putin holds talks on Transdniester

Renewable “Energy Islands” at Sea To Power Cities, Produce Fresh Water and More

Off the coast of Somalia: ‘We’re not pirates. These are our waters, not theirs’
Regional meeting for fighting sea piracy acts to be held in Cairo
India wants UN force off Somalia after its ship is refused protection
Ship escapes pirate attack off Somalia, Russia says
Chinese fishing boat reported hijacked off Kenya

Mermaid actress, gamers join whale war
Japan will not hunt humpack whales this year
Japanese whalers go with no guard

Abkhazia, Russia in talks on Black Sea Fleet base – minister

Canada’s Arctic claim ‘promising’: researcher
Russia’s nuclear industry looks towards Arctic shelf
Drawing Lines in the Sea: Nations Stake Claims on Arctic Ocean Riches
Will the Opening of the Northwest Passage Transform Global Shipping Anytime Soon?