TBILISI, Georgia – U.S. Vice President Joe Biden arrives in Georgia on Wednesday, almost a year after a war with Russia that turned the small nation on the far frontier of Europe into the epicenter of the simmering conflict between Moscow and the West.
Biden will hold two days of talks with President Mikhail Saakashvili and opposition leaders to demonstrate U.S. support for Georgia, a loyal ally concerned about Washington's efforts to court the Kremlin.
The Russia-Georgia war capped years of increasing tensions between the West and Russia, a country key to U.S. and European efforts to halt the spread of nuclear weapons, battle terrorism and secure Europe's energy supplies.
Biden's trip comes just a few weeks after President Barack Obama's summit in Moscow and amid increasing concern among some of Russia's East European neighbors that warming relations between the U.S. and Russia might leave them out in the cold.
He will arrive from Ukraine, another former Soviet nation looking to strengthen ties to the U.S. and Europe.
Saakashvili and Biden will attend ceremonies Wednesday night, including a banquet where both will exchange toasts, a ritual of hospitality that Georgians have turned into an art form.
On Thursday, Biden will hold formal discussions with Saakashvili, whose government was shaken this spring by mass street demonstrations demanding his resignation. The vice president will also meet with leading members of the opposition.
Political foes blame Saakashvili for the August war's disastrous results and accuse him of riding roughshod over democratic rights.
Saakashvili has said he tried to defend Georgia from Russian aggression, and he announced a series of political reforms Monday meant to address his critics' complaints that his administration was restricting rights.
After Georgia used military force to try to seize a breakaway region from Moscow-backed separatists in August, Russia sent tanks and warplanes deep into Georgian territory, crushing the country's army.
The conflict ended hopes in the West that Russia, after recovering from the economic and social turmoil of the post-Soviet era, would become a docile, democratic member of the club of European nations.
Instead, Russia has tried to reclaim its historic role as an assertive regional power with global ambitions.
Shortly after the Georgian war, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev declared that Moscow has a "zone of privileged interests" among former Soviet and Eastern European satellites.
The U.S. and Europe have rejected sphere-of-influence geopolitics, which give great powers sway over their smaller neighbors. And they show no signs of backing down.
Neither do they seem willing to risk a confrontation with Russia on the issue.
The U.S. has pledged to support NATO membership for Ukraine and Georgia. But Germany and other European member states are skeptical.

PARIS (AFP) –
Consumer spending in recession-hit France rebounded in recent months, driven by a revival in car buying, official statistics showed on Wednesday.

Seasonally-adjusted figures from the INSEE statistics institute showed household spending on manufactured products grew 1.4 percent in June after a dip in May, by 0.7 percent over the second quarter of 2009 and 0.2 percent in the first.

The second-quarter rise was driven "mainly by consumer spending on automobiles," it said.

Consumer spending, seen as a key driver of growth in Europe's third-biggest economy, was up by 1.2 percent over the past 12 months.

France's economy is expected to contract by three percent overall this year due to one of the harshest economic crises in decades.

Economy Minister Christine Lagarde hailed the figures as a better than expected. Speaking on French television ahead of their official publication she said that industrial production and the auto sector were looking up.

"In many industrial countries today, there is a slight upturn," she said.

McALLEN, Texas – A Fort Hood-based soldier has been missing for about a week since telling family members he was heading to a Texas border town, and the FBI says the Army was told the missing private had been kidnapped, the soldier's brother said Tuesday.
The family of Pfc. James Gonzalez, 24, last saw him July 11 at his mother's house in Robstown, near Corpus Christi, said his older brother, J.C. Gonzalez. James Gonzalez said he was headed to Laredo that afternoon to hang out with friends before returning to base July 13, his brother said.
But on July 13, Gonzalez's commander called looking for the private. Later that day, the FBI called the family to say that the Army had received a call saying Gonzalez had been kidnapped. The caller demanded $100,000 and the withdrawal of all troops from the border.
About 575 National Guard troops remain on the border, but thousands that had been patrolling the area withdrew last year.
The FBI referred questions to the Army, which is leading the investigation.
Christopher Grey, chief public affairs officer for the U.S. Army Criminal Investigations Command in northern Virginia, said the Army was cooperating with local, state and federal law enforcement agencies in the search for Gonzalez. Grey said the Army would not discuss details of the case, including whether it received a ransom call. The Army had issued an advisory in the border region asking people to be on the lookout for Gonzalez and to contact local law enforcement with information on his whereabouts, Grey said.
J.C. Gonzalez said his brother was familiar with the border city of Laredo and had not mentioned any plans to cross into Mexico, directly across the Rio Grande. For the past week his cell phone has gone straight to voicemail, he has not logged into his MySpace Web page and authorities have not been able to track his car, a 2006 BMW, which was fitted with a tracking device, said J.C. Gonzalez.
If Gonzalez was going to take off, "he would have told somebody," his brother said. "It's not like him at all."
James Gonzalez's decision to join the Army about a year and a half ago surprised his family, but they supported the decision, J.C. Gonzalez said. It seemed to be a good change for him.
"He was pretty happy," his brother said. "He had a house, a car and had taken that step to manhood. He was enjoying himself."
The family says it has been frustrated so far by the Army's response.
"We don't feel the Army is taking it as seriously as we are," J.C. Gonzalez said.
Gonzalez was awaiting trial this fall on misdemeanor charges stemming from an argument with his girlfriend. His brother said that situation was being handled and would have been no reason for him to disappear.

TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras – Honduras' interim government ordered Venezuelan diplomats on Tuesday to leave the country as the international community threatened new sanctions on the Central American nation if negotiations fail to resolve the crisis.
Venezuelan Embassy charge d'affaires Ariel Vargas said he received a letter from the Honduran Foreign Ministry ordering his diplomats to leave in 72 hours.
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has been the most vociferous critic of what he calls the "gorilla" government that overthrew his ally Manuel Zelaya on June 28.
The government of Roberto Micheletti, whom congress swore in as president after the coup, accused Venezuela of meddling in its affairs and of threatening to use its armed forces against Honduras, according to a copy of the letter obtained by The Associated Press.
Vargas dismissed the allegations and — holed up in the embassy along with a consular officer also affected by the order — vowed to defy it.
"We only have relations with the government of President Manuel Zelaya," Vargas told reporters outside the building. He said the expulsion order "does not exist for us, because the Micheletti government does not exist. It is a usurper government, a coup government, a government that is not recognized by anyone on an international level."
Micheletti apparently planned no immediate action to remove the Venezuelans.
"We are going to wait for them to obey the order this country has given them," he said late Tuesday. He added that "we have information that many of their people are involved in the movements that have been happening in our country," an apparent reference to pro-Zelaya protests.
Marta Lorena Alvarado, Micheletti's assistant foreign affairs minister, said Honduras was withdrawing its embassy staff from Venezuela; both countries pulled their ambassadors soon after the coup.
From Managua, Nicaragua, Zelaya told the Venezuelan diplomats to stay put and said he plans to try again to return to Honduras sometime after Wednesday, the expiration date for a 72-hour period requested by Costa Rican President and mediator Oscar Arias to allow time for negotiations.
"We want to return to Honduras to look for solutions. It will be a peaceful return," Zelaya told a news conference. He did not give details.
Zelaya also said he sent a letter to President Barack Obama naming army officials and lawmakers who allegedly planned his ouster, and asking for economic actions against "those who conspired directly to execute the coup."
Chavez has demanded Washington do more to pressure Micheletti and force Zelaya's return to power, including withdrawing U.S. troops from its Honduran base.
The European Union, meanwhile, warned Tuesday that if talks to end the crisis fail, it may impose further sanctions against Honduras. The EU announced on Monday that it had already frozen some euro65 million ($92 million) in aid.
Swedish Foreign Minister Carl Bildt — whose country holds the rotating EU presidency — said the bloc is "considering different ways" to support mediation efforts by Costa Rican President Oscar Arias. He did not elaborate.
The 27-nation EU, like the United Nations and the Organization of American States, has condemned the coup and called for Zelaya's immediate return to power.
No government has recognized the Micheletti administration.
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has told Micheletti there would be serious consequences if his government keeps ignoring international calls for Zelaya's return — the key point that led to a stalemate in U.S.-supported negotiations over the weekend.

Micheletti has vowed not to back down, and he sent a team to Washington this week to lobby against economic sanctions by painting the coup backers as a bulwark against "dictatorship" and "communism."

Appealing to free trade supporters, Micheletti's team hopes to nudge the Obama administration away from its threat to impose sanctions on the impoverished country, where export-assembly factories are dominated by U.S. firms and investors.

Business executives say U.S. Ambassador Hugo Llorens called them into meetings to say Honduras could face tough sanctions if leaders continue to refuse Arias' compromise proposal for Zelaya to return as head of a coalition government. The U.S. Embassy said it would not comment on the meetings.

Micheletti has said he will stay in power until a scheduled Nov. 29 presidential vote, which the United States has suggested it may not recognize if it is held under a de facto government.

Zelaya angered many people in Honduras by ignoring Congress' and the courts' objections to his effort to hold a referendum on changing the constitution, which many saw as an attempt to impose a Chavez-style socialist government.

He argued that the current constitution protects a system of government that excludes the poor.

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Associated Press writers Juan Carlos Llorca in Tegucigalpa and Morgan Lee in Managua, Nicaragua, contributed to this report.