Georgia hunts Bush grenade suspect

[David]

TBILISI, Georgia (AP) -- Authorities in Georgia have released a photograph of a man suspected of throwing a grenade at a podium where U.S. President George W. Bush was speaking this May. The grenade failed to explode and no one was hurt.

Interior Minister Vano Merabishvili also on Monday announced a reward of 150,000 lari ($80,000; ?66,300) for information leading to the identification of the dark-haired man in dark glasses pictured in the photo.

Georgian and U.S. authorities believe he is the man who threw a grenade in the crowd of tens of thousands who watched Bush speak on May 10 in the former Soviet republic's capital, Tbilisi, Merabishvili told reporters.

The live grenade landed less than 100 feet (31 meters) from the podium but did not explode. A preliminary investigation indicated the activation device deployed too slowly to hit the blasting cap hard enough, the FBI said.

Georgian officials had initially claimed the grenade was not set to explode, and U.S. officials initially said that Bush had been in no danger, but they later said the grenade was a threat to his life. (Full story)

Bush spoke from behind bulletproof glass, addressing tens of thousands of Georgians in a main Tbilisi square as part of a visit aimed at cementing relations between the United States and Georgia's new pro-Western leadership.

President Mikhail Saakashvili also was on the podium when Bush spoke, raising the prospect that the grenade could have been directed at him. Saakashvili came to power after the 2003 Rose Revolution that ousted Eduard Shevardnadze.

Prosecutor General Zurab Adeishvili said late last month that authorities would soon be able to name the suspect, but Merabishvili said officials did not know the name of the man in the picture.

Merabishvili said the man was believed to between 25 and 35 years old and 175-180 centimeters tall (5 feet 9 inches to 5 feet 11 inches). He said the photo was being published and distributed to police and border guards in the Caucasus Mountain nation.