Eurasia

ANKARA (Reuters) – A Turkish man set himself on fire during a protest by ethnic Uighurs in front of the Chinese embassy in Turkey on Friday against China’s rule in the region of Xinjiang as Beijing opened the Olympics.

MOSCOW (Reuters) – Russia will cut all air links with Georgia from midnight on Friday, a spokeswoman for the Russian Transport Ministry said.

TEHRAN (FNA)- India this afternoon withdrew its permission for a North Korean plane to overfly Indian airspace on its way to Iran, just before it could take off from Mandalay in Myanmar where it had made a stopover.

MOSCOW (Reuters) – Russian President Dmitry Medvedev vowed on Friday to defend “compatriots” in Georgia’s breakaway region of South Ossetia and promised to punish those responsible for their deaths.

BEIJING (Reuters) – U.S. President George W. Bush and Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin discussed the fighting in Georgia, the former Soviet republic that is pushing to join NATO, White House spokesman Gordon Johndroe said on Friday.

MOSCOW (Reuters) – Units of Russia’s 58th Army are approaching the capital of Georgia’s breakaway region of South Ossetia, Tskhinvali, where fighting was raging on Friday, RIA news agency quoted a senior Russian commander as saying.

VIENNA (Reuters) – The head of Europe’s main security and human rights group warned on Friday the Georgia-Ossetia region was on the brink of full-scale war and he called for a halt to all fighting.

MOSCOW (Reuters) – More than 10 Russian peacekeepers have been killed during fighting in Tskhinvali, the capital of Georgia’s breakaway region of South Ossetia, news agencies quoted a top Russian military commander as saying on Friday.

ISLAMABAD (Reuters) – Eyes were on Pakistan’s generals on Friday for any gesture of support for President Pervez Musharraf a day after a four-month-old civilian coalition declared plans to impeach the former army chief.

MOSCOW (Reuters) – Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Friday that Moscow was receiving reports that villages in Georgia’s breakaway region of South Ossetia were being ethnically cleansed.