Georgia

SAVANNAH, Ga. (AP) — Leon Brown is trusted enough to drive a tractor-trailer inside one of the nation’s busiest seaports more than six years after being released from prison. But he’s not allowed to vote in Georgia because of a law rooted in the years after the Civil War, when whites sought to keep blacks from the ballot box.

TBILISI, May 2. /TASS/: Georgian President Salome Zourabichvili’s official visit to the United States has not been canceled and efforts are underway for holding it, the Foreign Ministry told TASS on Thursday.

"The report that allegedly the Georgian side’s request on the Georgian president’s visit to the US has been rejected, does not correspond to reality. The work on the president’s visit via diplomatic channels is underway. It’s early to say about the date of the visit," the ministry said.

SUKHUM, May 1. /TASS/: The Abkhazian Foreign Ministry is calling on the leadership of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) to stop making unfounded statements and show a balanced approach to assessing the situation in the republic.

TBILISI, May 1. /TASS/: The construction of US military base in Georgia is inadvisable and may be viewed as a provocation, Georgian President Salome Zourabichvili told VOA's Georgian Service in an interview in Tbilisi.

"I don't think that it would be recommended," she said. "We don't need to take steps that might be viewed as provocations, and I don't think that the United States would be ready for having here a military base that would attract probably reactions both from Russia and from these ... terrorist movements that are very active in the region."

16 Dec 2018; AFP: Georgia on Sunday swore in its first female president, Salome Zurabishvili as opposition parties continue to denounce her election as fraudulent and demand snap parliamentary polls.

The inauguration paved the way for a new constitution to come into force, transforming the country into a parliamentary republic with a largely ceremonial president.

The event was held in the mediaeval town of Telavi in Georgia's eastern winemaking region of Kakheti.

Tbilisi; 2 Dec 2018; DW: Thousands of protesters have denounced Georgia's "rigged" presidential election. While monitors said the vote was largely fair, the OSCE raised concerns that state money was used to fund the winner's campaign.

More than 20,000 protesters on Sunday gathered in the Georgian capital Tbilisi to protest the run-off presidential election, saying the vote had been rigged.