An uncomfortable promise from Georgia's combative president in reference to the separatist regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia, as reported by RFE/RL:

Saakashvili said he was even willing to sacrifice parts of his body that Moscow has "shown interest in" -- a hint at then-President Vladimir Putin's infamous 2008 pledge to "hang Saakashvili by the balls."

"In addition, I am ready to cut off and send them those parts of my body which they have shown interest in more than once," Saakashvili said. "I am really ready to do it, and I say this without a hint of irony, as long as they pull out their forces from here and give Georgia's people -- its multiethnic population -- an opportunity to develop within the internationally recognized borders."

The comment, initially broadcast live on Georgian pro-government television, was removed from the interview's subsequent retransmissions.

On a more literal note -- I hope -- Saakashvili said he was willing to resign if Russia withdrew troops from the regions. 

It seems like the president may be spending too much time with Donald Trump.

If you'd like, you can see Arab Spring Tetris as a commentary on how multiple moving parts need to line up in order to wipe away the dictators of years past. Or you can see it as a brilliant way to procrastinate on a dreary Monday. Whatever you choose, enjoy this addictive creation, courtesy of Håkon Dreyer and Karl Sharro.

Live streaming by Ustream Among the articles in Foreign Policy's Sex Issue, none have generated as much debate as Mona Eltahawy's "Why Do They Hate Us?" and Karim Sadjadpour's "The Ayatollah Under the Bed(sheets)." The discussion will continue today in Washington, as both authors join in a conversation about their articles with FP editor-in-chief Susan Glasser. You can watch the event, co-hosted by our neighbors at the New America Foundation, through the livestream available here, beginning at 4 p.m. EST.

Biden goes on the attack, but doesn't ‘stick' the landing

Vice President Joe Biden continued to step into his role as the Obama campaign's leading national-security attack dog with a speech at New York University on Thursday that questioned Mitt Romney's credentials to serve as commander-in-chief and accused him of distorting the president's record. "If you're looking for a bumper sticker to sum up how President Obama has handled what we inherited, it's pretty simple: Osama bin Laden is dead and General Motors is alive," Biden said. He also again mocked Romney's suggestion that Russia is America's primary geopolitical foe and defended the administration's handling of the Iranian nuclear program, saying, "The only step we could take that we aren't already taking is to launch a war against Iran. If that's what Gov. Romney means by a 'very different policy,' he should tell the American people."

Unfortunately for Biden, the line of the speech that got by far the most coverage was his confident assertion that "the president has a big stick."

Rubio grabs the spotlight

The day before Biden's speech, Florida Sen. Marco Rubio made a "major foreign policy address" of his own at the Brookings Institution. The speech generated quite a bit of buzz thanks to suggestions that Rubio may be on the shortlist for Romney's running mate. (For the record, Rubio has repeatedly denied that he's interested in being vice president.)

But despite the expectation that Rubio would use the speech as an audition for a spot on the ticket, Rubio differed from Romney on topics including foreign aid, the use of force in Syria and Libya, and negotiating with Iran. Saying that he often feels more affinity with hawkish democrats than isolationist republicans in the Senate, Rubio joked that "on foreign policy, if you go far enough to the right, you wind up on the left."

The Syria debate

Sure enough, the very next day Rubio found himself in a tussle with fellow Senate Republicans over a resolution he had co-sponsored condemning the Bashar al-Assad regime's violence in Syria. GOP Senators including Richard Lugar and Bob Corker objected to language calling on Assad to step down. The debate highlighted a split in opinion within the party on Syria. House GOP members demanded assurances this week that the White House would notify Congress in accordance with the war powers act should military action be taken in Syria.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton called his week for the U.N. Security Council to impose an arms embargo and other tough measures on Syria. Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Martin Dempsey also told Congress that the Pentagon would be ready to provide military options in Syria should it be required.    

Romney has advocated support for the anti-Assad opposition, but stopped short of supporting military involvement -- breaking with more aggressive members of his party such as Sen. John McCain. Romney campaign foreign policy director Alex Wong said this week that the Obama administration has been "shamefully absent from this crisis" in Syria.

Newt out

After five devastating primary losses to Romney, Newt Gingrich's campaign announced on Wednesday that the candidate is finally dropping out ... though not until next Tuesday. A spokesman said Gingrich is "laying out plans now how as a citizen he can best help stop [an] Obama second term and win congressional majorities." It's thought that he will most likely endorse Romney.

The former speaker of the House ends his campaign having won two states and 137 delegates -- but he leaves behind a legacy of out-of-the-box ideas on topics ranging from the virtues of janitorial work to algae fuels to conquering the moon.

Just like Condi

A CNN poll this week found that former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is a narrow favorite among Republicans for Romney's VP pick. (Now teaching at Stanford, she has said repeatedly that she's not interested in the job.) Rice, at 26 percent, is followed by Rick Santorum, New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, and Marco Rubio. Interesting, despite the Florida senator's moderate views on immigration and internationalist foreign policy, he's still the favorite among self-described Tea Party supporters.

The latest from FP:

Paul Miller makes the case for Gen. David Petraeus as vice president.

Responding to Biden's speech, Michael A. Cohen says the Democrats need to decide if Romney is George W. Bush or Michael Dukakis.

Romney campaign advisor Richard Williamson says the recent North Korean nuclear test was Obama's Jimmy Carter moment.

Aaron David Miller offers 5 reasons why he believes Obama has the election in the bag. 

Joshua E. Keating thinks Rubio's speech was pitched more toward 2016 than 2012.

Scott Clement looks at whether Americans still hate the United Nations.

From Passport, the difference between a slip of the tongue and genuine ignorance.

The blind, self-taught legal activist Chen Guangcheng has escaped from his village in Shandong province where he was kept a prisoner in his own home and fled to Beijing. The New York Times quoted an official at the Chinese Ministry of State Security as saying Chen had made it to the U.S. embassy, though the State Department hasn't confirmed or denied if Chen is inside.

Chen become famous for filing a class action lawsuit in 2005 on behalf of woman who underwent forced sterilizations; he was later imprisoned for three years for "damaging property and organising a mob to disturb traffic" and then kept under de facto house arrest. Chen's house became a spot of pilgrimage for human rights activists, a sort of adventure tourism for Chinese who wanted to experience for themselves the thuggishness their country has to offer. Batman actor Christian Bale tried to visit as well but was forcibly turned away; "What I really wanted to do was to meet the man, shake his hand and say what an inspiration he is" Bale said at the time.  

It's a sensitive time for the United States to consider offering Chen asylum, as China is still reeling from the downfall of high ranking leader Bo Xilai, a scandal precipitated by an associate of his seeking refuge in the U.S. Consulate in Chengdu. 

This is at least the second time that Chen has escaped from house arrest. "The night gives me an advantage," he told Time Magazine, after fleeing from an early house arrest in August 2005 to Beijing. "I can navigate better than people with sight can."

It has not been a banner week for media coverage of the Arab world. Blame it on journalists unfamiliar with their subject matter, the demands of an ever-quicker news cycle, or simply salacious stories that were "too good to check" -- a number of stories that have made it into major media outlets recently are simply not true, or omit essential details of the tale.

First, and most infamously, we have the "farewell sex" episode. The story, which was reported in al-Arabiya and the Pulitzer Prize-winning Huffington Post, goes like this:  Islamists in the Egyptian parliament were contemplating a bill that would allow husbands to have sex with their wives for six hours after death. The only problem? As the Christian Science Monitor's Dan Murphy writes, the story is "utter hooey." The rumor was initially advanced in an opinion piece by a partisan of deposed President Hosni Mubarak's regime, and caught fire in the international media from there - without anyone doing a basic fact-check.

While the "farewell sex" report is simply gross, the next story on the docket is the stuff of nightmares. The "buried alive" video reportedly shows soldiers loyal to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's regime burying an opponent of the regime in a pit of dirt. The soldiers taunt the buried activist, telling him to say "there is no God but Bashar." Britain's Daily Mail and the Israeli outlet Ynet called it the "most horrific video" yet to emerge from the Syrian uprising -- a high bar.

This case is more difficult than the "farewell sex" story -- however, there do seem to be significant concerns about the video's authenticity. As this fact-check on Storyful  explains, the video was originally posted on the Facebook page of a group that coordinated anti-Assad activism in southern Syria. However, the video was removed from the page yesterday, soon after it began to attract scrutiny. Other concerns, which have also been raised by an editor at the BBC, relate to the clarity of the audio. It's important to point out that nobody can conclusively prove that the video is fake -- but there are more than enough red flags here to hold off on publishing it

If "farewell sex" and "buried alive" stories are examples of journalistic malpractice, the third example is more of a misdemeanor. The Washington Post reported yesterday that Vogue's infamous profile of Syrian First Lady Asma al-Assad had been scrubbed from its website. That's true, as far as it goes, but it's also old news -- the profile was scrubbed from Vogue's site roughly a year ago, shortly after Assad's brutal crackdown on protesters began. You'd also think that the Post would want to give credit to journalists like The Atlantic's Max Fisher, who covered this story months ago.

But fear not, journalists of the world. Two Lebanese comedians are currently on trial in what has been dubbed "the case of the Superman underpants." It all began in December 2009, when Edmund Hedded revealed a few square inches of his boxers during a stand-up comedy show at a bar in Lebanon. That was enough for him to be arrested and charged under an act in the penal code that condemns "frivolity" -- a crime that, if fully enforced, would condemn a significant portion of the population of Beirut to jail. Incredibly enough, this story actually appears to be true.