[…] Immediately following Russia’s August 8 invasion of its southern neighbor, the G8 ministers came together to appeal for peace in a series of conference calls with their Russian counterpart, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, while representatives from the European Union (EU) and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) shuttled between Moscow and Tbilisi, Georgia, to broker a six-point cease-fire agreement.

[…] The development of a limited ballistic missile defense system in Europe creates an important capability for NATO allies that poses no threat to Russia, says a senior U.S. diplomat. "It can defend against all long-range missile launches" from a rogue state, but for example, the system would not be able to protect against shorter-range missile launches.

[…] The United States condemns the decision by the Russian President to recognize as independent states the Georgian regions of South Ossetia and Abkhazia. This decision is inconsistent with numerous United Nations Security Council Resolutions that Russia has voted for in the past, and is also inconsistent with the French-brokered six-point ceasefire agreement which President Medvedev signed on August 12, 2008.

[…] “I condemn Russia’s aggressive actions and reiterate my call for an immediate ceasefire,” Obama said August 9, two days after fighting broke out. “Diplomats at the highest levels from the United States, the European Union and the United Nations must become directly involved in mediating this military conflict and beginning a process to resolve the political disputes over the territories of South Ossetia and Abkhazia.”

[…] The ships are hauling blankets, bottled water, baby food and hygiene kits to those who have lost their homes or fled them in the wake of the Russian-Georgian conflict that erupted August 8.
The Georgian government requested U.S. humanitarian assistance, which is being coordinated by the State Department and the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) with logistical support from the Defense Department.

[…] Russia’s attack on Georgia does not represent the start of a “new Cold War,” says Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, but it does raise serious questions in Washington and other world capitals about the Kremlin’s future foreign policy path. “What has happened in Georgia has caused us to step back and to want to look hard at whether Russia is really prepared to take a course that would lead it into further integration into the international community,”

[…] During an August 20 visit to four internally displaced person (IDP) collective centers in northwest Tbilisi, the USAID Disaster Assistance Response Team (DART) noted that nearly 90 percent of the residents of the largest site were women and children.

[…] USAID will provide over 1 million MT of food, valued at more than $857 million, to Ethiopia, Somalia, Kenya and Djibouti in fiscal year 2008 in response to the drought emergency affecting the Horn of Africa. In another move to speed food to Ethiopia and Somalia, where needs are greatest, USAID reached an agreement this month with the UN World Food Program (WFP) to purchase emergency food aid in Africa for those countries.