Vengeance is theirs, I guess...

It seems Georgia's hiring of Brazilian mercenaries to upset the Russian Beach Volleyball team will not go unpunished.

Villages in Georgia were being burned and looted as Russian tanks and soldiers followed by "irregulars" advanced from the breakaway province of South Ossetia, eyewitnesses said today.

"People are fleeing, there is a mood of absolute panic. The idea there is a ceasefire is ridiculous," Luke Harding, the Guardian's correspondent, said.

Earlier, witnesses reported a military convoy heading towards the Georgian capital Tbilisi, but it later turned off the road and headed back towards South Ossetia. Russia denied any advance.

You'd have thought that mishandling a breakaway element of your fledgling democracy would have stirred up the most shit. But no, Georgia had to go and kick a wolverine in the testes by paying Brazilians to play beach volleyball.

At any rate, keep searching for that cease-fire, Russia. Make sure you check over there under that pile of melted dolls and old people parts.