Moscow/Tbilisi, August 13
Flags flew at half mast as Russia and Georgia mourned their dead today in five days of fighting over the separatist region of South Ossetia, with an EU-sponsored ceasefire taking hold on the ground.

The breakaway region and adjacent areas of Georgia were mostly quiet overnight after the warring sides signed up in principle on Tuesday to a plan brokered by French President Nicolas Sarkozy on behalf of the European Union.

Russia’s far greater military might humiliated Georgia, which last Thursday launched an unsuccessful strike to try to retake the pro-Russian region of South Ossetia, provoking massive retaliation from Moscow. The conflict opened a diplomatic gulf between the United States and Britain, who condemned Moscow’s “blatant aggression”, and France, Italy and Germany, who were careful to avoid criticising Russia, a key energy supplier and business partner.

Analysts said Saakashvili’s failed attempt to seize South Ossetia by force last week made it much less likely that the breakaway territory, along with a second rebel region, Abkhazia, would return to Tbilisi’s control in the future.

In Brussels, the European Union foreign ministers heard a report from France’s Bernard Kouchner on the peace mission. He urged the bloc to send peacekeeping monitors to South Ossetia to help uphold the ceasefire. In and around South Ossetia’s capital Tskhinvali, which was devastated during the Georgian attack, occasional small-arms fire resounded but there were no major incidents.

“The situation is purely a post-war one,” said South Ossetian spokeswoman Irina Gagloyeva. “Taking advantage of this lull, we are reburying those killed in the Georgian aggression.

“Many were buried in a hurry just where they were killed - in orchards and kitchen yards. Yesterday, we recovered 18 decomposed bodies from under the rubble in Tskhinvali. Today we found another four.” Russia says 1,600 civilians died when Georgia attacked South Ossetia, though the figure has not been independently verified. Moscow’s general staff says it lost 74 soldiers in the fighting, with 171 wounded and 19 missing.

New Delhi, August 13
The spearhead of Sri Lanka’s war against the Tamil Tigers Wednesday made light of India’s criticism that Tamils were not with Colombo, saying the government had failed to convince the world about its sincerity to resolve the ethnic conflict.

Defence Secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa added that Sri Lanka would never talk to the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) because it would be a wasted effort.

Rajapaksa, brother and confidant of President Mahinda Rajapaksa, was asked to comment on India’s national security adviser M.K. Narayayan’s comments Tuesday that even if Sri Lanka won the battle against the LTTE it would not win the war because “they haven’t got the Tamil population on their side”.

Narayanan also told The Straits Times that India had been urging Lanka to get the Tamils on their side by devolving more power to minorities. “What the Lankans are not factoring in is the great deal of sullenness in the Tamil man,” said Rajapaksa. “The only area where we have failed is to show our genuineness, to convince the outsiders, about our sincerity in resolving the problem. In action we have proved it. Unfortunately, we are not good at propaganda. If Tamils indeed are not with us, then it is our weakness.

“There is nothing negative to what Narayanan has said. In my opinion, he has only put in different words what our President has been saying, that we need to defeat terrorism but the (ethnic) problem needs to be resolved (politically).

“There is nothing bad against Sri Lanka in what Narayanan has said. It is significant that he has said that the military is winning. And he has never said we should talk to the LTTE. These are very positive things.

“On the whole it is the inability of the President and the government to show the sincerity to the Tamils and to the outside world. We have to improve that... It will take time... As for Narayanan, I understand him very well. I know his vision.” Rajapaksa, who narrowly escaped an assassination attempt blamed on the LTTE in 2006, has been widely blamed for the growing climate of intolerance bordering on violence in Lanka as well as rights abuses in the conduct of the war.

He, however, maintained that Colombo - which has captured the multi-ethnic eastern province from the LTTE and is now trying to seize the Tamil-majority north from - would never talk to the Tigers. Saying all previous negotiations with the LTTE had failed to resolve the problem, he said: “It is very clear that its useless talking to the LTTE because it is not genuine or sincere (vis-à-vis a negotiated solution). — IANS

Tripoli, August 13
A bomb blast killed at least 18 persons, including nine soldiers, in the northern Lebanese city of Tripoli on Wednesday, security sources said.

The bomb, which also wounded at least 45 persons, was the deadliest attack on the army since its battle with Al-Qaida-inspired Islamist militants in the north last year.

It had been placed in a bag at a bus stop where soldiers usually gather, the army said in a statement, describing the attack as a “terrorist bombing” - a phrase used in the past by the military when it suspects militant Islamist involvement. The blast struck at 7.45 am as people made their way to work. Red Cross workers ferried casualties to hospital. The ground was spattered with blood and covered in shards of glass. “It seems that the bomb was detonated wirelessed by remote,” local police chief Ashraf Reefi said.

There were no immediate claims of responsibility for the attack which has been the scene of fighting between security forces and Islamist militants and sectarian violence linked to political tension in Lebanon. — Reuters

BRIEFLY

Indian arrested for stabbing girlfriend
SAN DIEGO: Shelley Malil (43) an Indian actor and a native of Kerala was charged with attempted murder, the police said. He stabbed his girlfriend more than 20 times causing injuries with a deadly weapon. He was arrested on Tuesday, the San Diego county sheriff's department said. — AP

Fresh floods in Vietnam
HANOI: Three persons, including a 13-year-old boy, were killed in fresh floods in northern Vietnam while the death toll in the wake of tropical storm Kammuri rose to 119, disaster officials said on Wednesday. The new floods occurred in several districts of Quang Ninh province, east of Hanoi. Provincial disaster official Le Thanh Nam said heavy rains had been reported there since Tuesday. — AFP

Bus accident kills 24
BEIJING: A bus overturned in a mountainous region of China's west, killing 24 students and their parents, state media said. The bus was travelling on a remote highway in the restive western province of Xinjiang, an official of the Xinhua news agency said on Tuesday. The bus was about 1,180 km from the regional capital of Urumqi when it flipped over. Investigations for the cause of accident are still on, the official maintained. — AP