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We are not without resources. There are a range of measures to be deployed if Russia does not live up to its cease-fire commitments: Suspend the NATO-Russia Council established in 2002 to help bring Russia closer to the West. Make clear that dissolution will follow suspension. The council gives Russia a seat at the NATO table. Message: Invading neighboring democracies forfeits the seat.Bar Russian entry to the World Trade Organization.Dissolve the G-8. Putin's dictatorship long made Russia's presence in this group of industrial democracies a farce, but no one wanted to upset the bear by expelling it. No need to....

More than 4,000 people are facing eviction to make room for the 2014 Winter Olympics in the Black Sea resort of Sochi, according to campaigners, who say that many will receive little or no compensation. “My family has lived on this land for five generations,” said Dmitry Drofichev, a farmer. “We are being offered a fraction of what the land is worth. They’ll have to bulldoze me and the house to make me move.” The authorities have already begun forcibly removing people from areas where Olympic facilities are to be built. Fifteen families of refugees from a war in the...

The Russian resort city Sochi will host 2014 Winter Olympic Games, as the head of the International Olympic Committee Jacques Rogge has reported. In the final round Sochi beat Pyeongchang of South Korea by 4 votes with 51 votes going to Russia and 47 – to South Korea.

President Bush signed a $70 billion tax-cut package, and honored the 2006 United States Winter Olympic and Paralympics Teams, both events being held on the South Lawn at the White House. Defense Secretary Rumsfeld testified before the Senate Appropriations Committee. Some details here; note bias in article title. There are some late photos from last evening's dinner that the president and first lady hosted for Australia's Prime Minister, John Howard, and his wife, Janette. Tony Snow's press briefing today (transcript and video). Welcome to Sanity Island!

One of Norway's male athletes at the Winter Olympics in Torino lost his concentration after matching racy photos from a woman with one of his own. The athlete received a series of increasingly immodest photos from a woman via mobile phone, newspaper Dagbladet reports. "Unfortunately he did something stupid. He answered with a similar photo. Not exactly a bright move," the athlete's trainer told the newspaper. The trouble started when the woman suddenly said she was offended by the picture and reportedly contacted various media offering to sell the nude photo of the Olympic star. "Our man was clearly affected,...

NEW YORK - Halfpipe star Shaun White showed up for an interview with NBC's Bob Costas as an Olympic champion, the pressure lifted from his shoulders and clearly juiced by his new jewelry. So "The Flying Tomato" decided to test the power of a gold medal by trolling for a date with skater Sasha Cohen. Hey, what's the worst that could happen? Chicks dig a little bling, right? White's interview shortly after his gyrating ride to gold was a memorable television moment precisely because it was everything that NBC's prime-time Olympics coverage mostly wasn't — fun, spontaneous and infused with...

Brother and sister skiers Anders and Alissa Johnson have trained together in the ski jump for their entire careers, and both are considered among the best jumpers in the country. But at the Olympics today, Alissa will be on the sidelines while her brother goes for the gold. "I'm here [only] to support unfortunately," Alissa, 19, said. "I wish I was here to train and jump, but I'm here to support Anders." The International Ski Federation has ruled that ski jumping is too dangerous for women, making it the only winter Olympic sport that has male competitors and no female...

American skiing ace Bode Miller says he can understand while some athletes turn to drugs in their quest for fame. Miller, who on Tuesday was disqualified from the Winter Olympics' alpine skiing combined event after a slalom slip-up, believes the pressure to succeed forces some competitors to cheat. "Sport was born clean and would remain so if it was about just competing for the fun of it, but the media and the public corrupt it because of the pressure they create," the outspoken Miller told the Gazzetta dello Sport. "Any athlete who isn't doing well is left in the corner,...

Heck, the Olympics are like that as well, a biennial triple toe loop of faith. We live in a world where people are killing each other over cartoons, so the fact that we can get together peacefully about anything -- even if includes ice dancing -- is reason to celebrate. Especially if Bode Miller is getting the first round. If you aren't familiar with Miller's story by now, how come? The skier has been on so many magazine covers this winter, you would think he personally broke up Brad and Jen's marriage. He implied on "60 Minutes" that he has...

Brian Boitano didn't take long to guess what the first question would be. His post-Olympic life has been full, with all of the stature and opportunities that a figure-skating gold medal can confer. But one thing has kept him in the public eye more than his ice shows or mentoring of Michelle Kwan ever could. "South Park" created a cartoon doppelganger and renewed his cult status...

With jumps, spins and those majestic spirals, Michelle Kwan showed she is good -- and healthy -- enough today and earned one more run at that elusive Olympic gold medal. Kwan, a South Bay native who resides in Manhattan Beach, sealed the spot on the U.S. Olympic team that she was handed two weeks ago, proving to a five-person monitoring committee that she's recovered from the groin injury that kept her out of the national championships. She performed both her long and short programs in less than 12 minutes, a quick practice session, and did every one of her jumps...

ROME (AP) - Four protesters briefly grabbed the Olympic torch from Italian track star Eleanora Berlanda as the relay passed through the Italian town of Trento on Monday. The protesters known as "the disobedient ones" - demonstrators associated with the anti-globalization movement - nabbed the torch and relay escort runners took it back, the Italian news agency ANSA reported. "I saw the (protesters') banners and I thought I would be able to pass by them, but they came near," Berlanda told The Associated Press by telephone.

Filed at 4:50 p.m. ET VENICE, Italy (AP) -- The man accused of trying to fix Olympic figure skating told ice dancing champion Marina Anissina her event could be banned from the games because of ``the mess,'' Italian police said Thursday. According to police wiretap transcripts, reputed Russian mobster Alimzhan Tokhtakhounov told Anissina, who won the gold medal with partner Gwendal Peizerat, that she could be ``the last champion.'' The latest transcripts were obtained by The Associated Press a week after the arrest of Tokhtakhounov on U.S. and Italian charges of corrupting judges at the Salt Lake City Games. Prosecutors...

Posted on Sun, Mar. 31, 2002 Have you ever wondered how professional journalists cover an international sporting event? Well too bad, because I'm going to tell you. In February I spent three weeks at the Winter Olympics in Utah (``Where the Party Never Stops Until 8:30 p.m.''). I was part of the press corps swarming around Olympic events in thermal underwear, asking penetrating questions such as: (1) Who won this event? (2) How can you tell? (3) What is this event called again? As you can see by these questions, the Olympic press corps does not always have a solid...