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.