Kavkaz

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.

(Reuters) – Here is a chronology of recent events in Georgian-Russian relations after fighting in the capital of Georgia’s breakaway South Ossetia region. The issue of South Ossetia’s independence has bedeviled Georgia’s relations with Russia.

(Reuters) – Fighting raged in and around the capital of Georgia’s breakaway South Ossetia region on Friday as Georgian troops, backed by tanks and warplanes, pounded separatist forces in a bid to re-take control of the territory. The following are possible scenarios:

(Reuters) – Fighting raged in and around the capital of Georgia’s breakaway South Ossetia region on Friday as Georgian troops and warplanes pounded separatist forces in a bid to regain control of the territory. The separatists have Moscow’s political and financial backing.

(Reuters) – Georgia, where government forces fought pro-Russian separatists on Friday, is an energy highway to the West with two major pipelines routed via the capital Tbilisi.

MEGVREKISI, Georgia (Reuters) – Fighting raged in and around the capital of Georgia’s breakaway South Ossetia region on Friday as Georgian troops, backed by warplanes, pounded separatist forces in a bid to re-take control of the territory.

MOSCOW (Reuters) – Georgia, engaged in a large-scale operation to regain control of its breakaway province of South Ossetia, told its other separatist region, Abkhazia, on Friday to stay away from the conflict.