A group of youths rally for the independence of South Ossetia from Georgia in the Russian town of Vladikavkaz on March 12.

Tensions between Moscow and Georgia’s pro-western government have reached fever pitch after Tbilisi accused a Russian fighter jet of shooting down one of its unmanned reconnaissance planes.
In a nationally televized address late Monday, Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili said Moscow had committed “an unprovoked act of aggression“ and that he had called Russian President Vladimir Putin to demand he “stop attacks on Georgia.“
Russia denied the shooting had taken place and the Kremlin said Putin had expressed concerns to Saakashvili about Georgian military flights over the separatist region of Abkhazia, AFP reported.
The incident threatens to inflame an already volatile relationship that has caused friction between Moscow and Georgia’s allies in the West, in particular the United States.
State Department spokesman Tom Casey said the United States was “very concerned“ and a senior US official said Washington believed Georgia’s claims.
“I think at the moment, it looks pretty clear that what the Georgians are saying is true,“ the official said, speaking on the condition of anonymity.
Georgia had already been seeking an emergency session of the UN Security Council to discuss Russian moves last week to strengthen ties with Abkhazia and another separatist region, South Ossetia.
Georgian Foreign Minister David Bakradze left Tbilisi Monday for the United States, where he was to press Georgia’s case with senior officials in Washington and at the UN in New York.
The 15 members of the UN Security Council will hold a private meeting with Bakradze on Wednesday, diplomats said Monday.
Bakradze’s efforts will be buoyed by the shooting allegation, which Tbilisi says is proven by radar data and video footage shot by the drone before it was destroyed.
In a statement released late Monday, the Georgian government said a Mig-29 fighter jet had taken off from a Russian-controlled military base in Abkhazia on Sunday, destroyed the drone with an air-to-air missile and then retreated to Russian airspace.
The statement said the jet’s clearly visible twin-tail design left no doubt it was a MiG-29, an aircraft that neither Abkhaz rebels nor Georgia possess.
Tbilisi claims Moscow has retaliated by upping its support for the rebels in Abkhazia and South Ossetia, which broke away from Georgian control during wars in the early 1990s. Russia already supports the regions financially and has provided passports to most of their residents.
Despite widespread Western condemnation, Putin announced last week that Russia would increase trade and cultural links with the rebels and provide “complete protection“ to Russians living there.

Hillary Rodham Clinton invoked Pearl Harbor, the Berlin Wall and Osama bin Laden as she reached for a victory in Pennsylvania’s Democratic presidential primary to recharge her comeback effort.
According to AP, Barack Obama said she would probably win but he hoped to keep it close in Tuesday’s voting.
Clinton made her closing arguments Monday for the biggest primary left on the election schedule, running an ad with historic images to ask voters whom they would trust most in the White House during a time of trouble.
It’s the same tactic she used successfully in the “3 a.m.“ ad she aired in the closing days of the Ohio and Texas contests last month.
It was the first time a Democratic candidate has used bin Laden in a campaign commercial in the 2008 race for the White House. The terrorist appears along with images from the stock market crash, the bombing at Pearl Harbor, the Soviet threat, the collapse of the Berlin Wall and Hurricane Katrina as an announcer tells voters the political contest is for “the most important job in the world.“

A team of international legal experts Tuesday stepped up their criticism of Sri Lanka, noting that repeated calls to improve its record on the issue had fallen on deaf ears, said AFP.
The International Independent Group of Eminent Persons (IIGEP) said Colombo lacked the political will to investigate grave rights abuses.
The panel members spoke to reporters Tuesday for the first time after attacking Colombo in a statement last month for blocking efforts to ensure minimum standards were maintained in probing serious abuses.
As their work progressed, the government’s tone “was becoming increasingly disrespectful (of the experts),“ British panel member Nigel Rodley said at the briefing.
“They were accusing us of all kinds of nefarious stuff, including making way for an international panel to monitor the rights situation on the ground here. It’s not true, the allegations are baseless,“ Rodley said.

Malaysia’s ruling coalition may open “a new era“ of cooperation with the opposition in administrative matters, the prime minister said Tuesday, signaling a policy shift after recent elections nearly leveled the balance of power, AP said.
Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi’s National Front coalition has long shunned any cooperation with its rivals, but it has been forced to consider how to deal with a three-party opposition alliance that won control of five states in March general elections.
Badawi indicated he was surprised that the opposition handed a key administrative post last week to a well-known National Front member.
National Front officials have debated whether Lee Kah Choon of the coalition’s Gerakan party should be kicked out after he accepted an offer last week to head two opposition-run development and investment organizations in the industrial hub of Penang state.

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon met Monday with Zimbabwe’s opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai in Accra, Ghana, to discuss the impasse in Zimbabwe’s March 29 presidential elections, a spokesperson said.
The meeting, at Tsvangirai’s request, took place before Ban was to fly to Monrovia, Liberia as part of his visit to West Africa, DPA said.
“The opposition leader complained about the deadlock and the deterioration of the humanitarian and political situation in his country,“ Michelle Montas said at UN headquarters in New York. “He appealed for an intervention by the African Union and the UN since he felt that there is no progress with the Southern African Development Community (SADC).“
Ban reiterated his “deep concern“ over the situation, Montas said. “The secretary general appeals for the release of electoral results as soon as possible,“ Montas said. She said an planned to consult with the AU about ways to resolve the impasse in Zimbabwe’s elections.