MOSCOW (Reuters) – About 140 buses carrying refugees from Georgia’s breakaway region of South Ossetia arrived in the adjacent Russian region of North Ossetia on Friday, Interfax news agency reported.

KIRKUK, Iraq (Reuters) – The failure of Iraqi politicians to resolve competing ethnic claims for the oil-rich northern city of Kirkuk is storing up explosive problems for the country’s future.

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.