Putin Postpones Trip to Germany

Russian President Vladimir Putin will not be traveling to Germany later this week as originally scheduled, the Kremlin announced Tuesday. The two-day visit, which was supposed to take place Aug. 10 in Hamburg, was cancelled due to the hostage-taking in a school in North Ossetia. The trip and meeting with German Chancellor Gerhard Schröder was meant to be a follow-up to a three-way summit between the two leaders and French President Jacques Chirac, which took place in Sochi early last week. The postponement is the second state visit Putin has put-off since the crisis -- he also called-off a trip to Turkey last week.