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Russia accused of dropping guided missle

By Times Wires
Published August 8, 2007

GEORGIA

Georgia said Tuesday that two Russian fighter jets invaded Georgian airspace and fired a guided missile at a village 37 miles from the country's capital. Moscow denied involvement and said Georgian authorities staged the incident to gain an edge in their ongoing conflict with Russia. Televised footage showed a deep and 2-foot-wide hole in the ground that Georgian authorities said was caused by a missile dropped Monday that did not explode. "This provocation was meant to cause panic, disrupt the peace in Georgia and ultimately change the country's political course," Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili told reporters.

BRAZIL

U.S.-sought drug suspect is arrested

A top leader of Colombia's biggest cocaine cartel was captured near Sao Paulo on Tuesday after a two-year investigation into traffickers accused of sending tons of the drug to the United States and Europe. Juan Carlos Ramirez Abadia, 44, who faces three U.S. federal indictments on drug and racketeering charges, was arrested just after dawn at a house in a gated community. U.S. officials said they would seek his extradition.

PAKISTAN

Musharraf faults attack comments

Pakistan's President Pervez Musharraf said Tuesday that suggestions the United States might carry out unilateral attacks against al-Qaida fighters on Pakistani soil were counterproductive. On Monday, President Bush said after meeting with Afghan President Hamid Karzai at Camp David, Md., that the United States would strike at al-Qaida figures inside Pakistan if it had solid intelligence about their whereabouts but did not say whether Pakistan would be consulted. In recent weeks, other administration officials and an American presidential hopeful have suggested that raids aimed at insurgents could be carried out without Pakistan's consent.

SOMALIA

U.N. official visits capital

A top U.N. envoy made an unannounced trip Tuesday to Somalia's ravaged capital. Francois Lonseny Fall, the U.N. secretary-general's special representative to Somalia, addressed the ongoing National Reconciliation Conference, aimed at ending Somalia's 16 years of anarchy. During his visit to Mogadishu, a 12-year-old girl and a woman were killed in a land mine explosion.

Elsewhere

Iran: Russia is increasing pressure on Iran to be more open about its nuclear program, threatening to indefinitely withhold fuel for a Russian-built reactor unless Tehran lifts secrecy shrouding past nuclear activities, diplomats said Tuesday.

Afghanistan: A group of 75 Taliban militants tried to overrun a U.S.-led coalition base in southern Afghanistan on Tuesday, a rare frontal attack that left more than 20 militants dead, the coalition said in a statement.

East Timor: Independence hero Xanana Gusmao was sworn in as East Timor's new prime minister today, a day after his appointment triggered violence by opposition loyalists in which at least six people were injured. Gusmao used to be president of East Timor.

[Last modified August 8, 2007, 00:18:36]