Eurasia

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.

VIENNA (Reuters) – The Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) called a special meeting of its permanent council on Friday afternoon to discuss the fighting in Georgia’s breakaway South Ossetian region.

VILNIUS (Reuters) – Lithuania, a staunch ally of Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili, will send its foreign minister on a fact-finding mission to Georgia on Friday amid the growing conflict in South Ossetia, the president’s office said.

MOSCOW (Reuters) – Russian armor rolled into the South Ossetian capital Tskhinvali on Friday, RIA news agency quoted a source in the regional Russian military headquarters as saying.