MOSCOW (Reuters) – Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov urged the United States to persuade Georgia to halt what Moscow called its “aggression” against South Ossetia, the Russian Foreign Ministry said on Friday.

TBILISI (Reuters) – Russian bombing killed about 30 Georgians but Georgia’s forces now control the rebel South Ossetian capital and the surrounding area, Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili said in a live television address on Friday.

HEBRON, West Bank (Reuters) – Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas’s forces shut down four Islamic charities and two photocopying shops in the West Bank city of Hebron on Friday for alleged ties to the rival Hamas faction, a security source said.