Sunday

TROPICAL STORM FAY: Florida Keys officials closed schools, opened shelters and urged visitors to leave as the sixth storm of the 2008 Atlantic season threatened to strengthen into a hurricane, but residents, but Key West tourists seemed in no hurry to evacuate.

GEORGIA-RUSSIA CONFLICT: Russian President Dmitry Medvedev promised to start withdrawing forces from Georgia but suggested they could stay in the breakaway region of South Ossetia. Top American officials said Washington would rethink its relationship with Moscow because of the Georgia invasion.

Monday

METAL THEFTt: Two day laborers face felony theft charges after being accused of stealing $250,000 in parts from Fort Gordon. A Richmond County investigator said he saw Marquette Mitchell, 37, and Omar Gavin, 33, unload the parts at a recycling center, where they received only $308 for the haul. A day later, the two were slapped with federal charges involving the theft of government property.

PAKISTAN: President Pervez Musharraf bowed to intense pressure, resigning after nearly nine years in power. The U.S. ally avoided impeachment and said he was putting national interests first.

OLYMPIC GYMNASTICS: China gymnast He Kexin and American competitor Nastia Liukin finished with the same score in the uneven bars final, but Ms. He was awarded the gold after she won a controversial tie-breaker.

Tuesday

GEORGIA: Gov. Sonny Perdue said homeowner tax grants have helped fatten local government coffers but have been "ineffective" in driving Georgia's property taxes down. Mr. Perdue has frozen the $428 million in grants that had been set to go out this year as the state scrambles to close a budget shortfall. He said he'd like to see the grants, which local officials say average $200 to $300 per household, scrapped altogether.

AUGUSTA: Garbage customers will pay $11 more for service this year, boosting the annual bill to suburban customers to $287. Augusta Commissioners approved City Administrator Fred Russell's decision to implement a clause in the solid waste contract that allows for an annual increase equal to the Consumer Price Index for the previous year.

AFGHANISTAN: Insurgents mounted two of the biggest attacks in years on Western forces, killing 10 French soldiers in a mountain ambush, then sending a squad of suicide bombers in a failed assault on a U.S. base near the Pakistan border.

AUGUSTA TRANSIT: Notices were posted on Augusta Public Transit buses stating that unlawful use of hotel key cards could result in a $50 fine per violation. Drivers asked passengers attempting to ride for free with key cards to show their hotel receipts. If they couldn't produce them, they had to come up with cash or walk.

Wednesday

Olympic track & field: Jamaican Usain Bolt completed a world-record sweep in the men's sprint events after claiming the 100 and 200 meters.

IRAQ: Iraqi and U.S. negotiators have completed a draft security agreement that would see American troops leave Iraqi cities as soon as June 30, Iraqi and American officials told The Associated Press.

EDUCATION: Despite an aggressive schedule, plans to open a Medical College of Georgia satellite campus in Athens by fall 2010 are on track, MCG President Daniel W. Rahn told a Board of Regents committee.

SPORTS: Georgia Southern coach Chris Hatcher announced that eight players, including senior wide receiver Raja Andrews, of Swainsboro, Ga., would be suspended for the Aug. 30 season opener because of institutional rules violations.

Thursday

IRAQ: Iraq and the U.S. pushed close to a deal setting a course for American combat troops to pull out of Iraqi cities by next June on the way to broader withdrawal from the long and costly war by 2011. Subject to final approval by the top Iraqi leadership, the exit date for U.S. troops would be December 2011, although the Americans insist on linking that target to additional security and political progress.

Health: The number of measles cases in the U.S. is at its highest level since 1997, and nearly half of those involve children whose parents rejected vaccination, government health officials reported.

ENTERTAINMENT: Georgia schools Superintendent Kathy Cox will appear on the special two-hour season premiere of Fox's Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader? on Sept. 5.

WEATHER: Georgia farmers hustled to harvest as much of their corn crop as possible before the arrival of possibly damaging winds and heavy rain spawned by Tropical Storm Fay.

Friday

FOOD SAFETY: The Food and Drug Administration issued a regulation allowing spinach and lettuce sellers to irradiate the greens in an effort to destroy the DNA of E. coli and salmonella, two well-known instigators of food-borne illness. Bags of irradiated spinach and lettuce must sport labels denoting irradiation and display the "radura," the international symbol for radiation.

CAMPAIGN 2008: Hours after a report that John McCain was stumped by a question asking how many homes he and his multimillionaire wife own, Democratic rival Barack Obama launched a national TV ad and a series of campaign stops aimed at portraying Mr. McCain as wealthy and out of touch. A review of property records showed at least eight homes.

GEORGIA-RUSSIA CONFLICT: Columns of Russian tanks rolled out of key positions deep inside Georgia as Moscow declared it had pulled forces out, but the United States, France and Britain protested that the withdrawal was not complete.