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THE UN headquarters on New York's East River was supposed to have been in darkness on Friday night, the diplomats tucked up at home to watch the fireworks of the Beijing Olympics opening ceremony. Instead, they were in their offices long into the night. As overhead television screens outside the Security Council showed Russian tanks invading Georgia, Russian and Georgian envoys traded insults. Russia's irritation with Georgia dates to November 2003 when pro-democracy protestors took to the street ADVERTISEMENT s in the so- called Rose Revolution to denounce an election rigged by pro-Moscow politicians. The result was a new election...

Georgia claims to have shot down ten aircraft and captured a Russian pilot. Kakha Lomaia, the secretary of Georgia's security council, said: "We have hit a Russian fighter this morning and the pilot has been captured." The two countries are close to full scale war after Russian tanks invaded the tiny territory in response to Georgian attacks on Moscow-backed separatists. South Ossetia's rebel leader said more than 1,400 civilians had been killed in the first day of fighting around the capital Tskhinvali. Foreign journalists witnessed an air attack on the town of Gori early on Saturday morning and the Georgian...

TBILISI, Aug 9 (Reuters) - Russian fighter jets targeted the the major Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) oil pipeline which carries oil to the West from Asia but missed, Georgia's Economic Development Minister Ekaterina Sharashidze said on Saturday. "This clearly shows that Russia has not just targeted Georgian economic outlets but international economic outlets in Georgia," she said at a news briefing. There have been no independent verifications of Russian jets targeting the BTC pipeline. (Reporting by Margarita Antidze, writing by James Kilner, editing by Jon Boyle)

from the May 25, 2005 edition Pipeline politics give Turkey an edge A pipeline that brings Caspian oil to Turkey's coast opens Wednesday. By Yigal Schleifer | Correspondent of The Christian Science Monitor ISTANBUL – Turkey's heartland of Anatolia - the massive plateau that serves as a land bridge between Asia and Europe - is dotted with the remains of 13th-century inns, reminders of the merchant caravans that traveled the fabled east-west Silk Road. Some 800 years later, Turkey is again trying to take advantage of its strategic location. Today, instead of caravansaries it is building pipelines, and instead of...

LONDON -(Dow Jones)- The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development has approved a total loan of $250 million for a multibillion dollar Caspian oil export pipeline, the bank said in a statement Tuesday. The EBRD's loan comes in addition to a $250 million financing package from the World Bank (news - web sites)'s International Finance Corp., which was approved Nov. 4. The $3.6-billion oil pipeline will travel some 1,700 kilometers from giant offshore Caspian oil fields near Baku in Azerbaijan across the Azeri desert, through Georgia and eastern Turkey before it terminates at the Turkish Mediterranean terminal of Ceyhan where...

Bush voices support for oil and gas pipelines leading from Caspian to Turkey Tue Jun 4, 6:57 AM ET By AIDA SULTANOVA, Associated Press Writer BAKU, Azerbaijan - U.S. President George W. Bush (news - web sites) reaffirmed Washington's strong support for the strategic oil and gas pipelines intended to carry rich Caspian Sea energy resources to global markets via Georgia and Turkey in a letter released Tuesday. "Great progress has been made over the past year toward realizing our shared goal of an east-west corridor to transport Azerbaijani and other Caspian oil and gas to global markets," Bush said...

Partners in the giant Azeri offshore Shakh Deniz gas field have cleared the way for construction of an export pipeline to Turkey by signing an agreement with transit nation Georgia. A BP-led consortium signed a Host Government Agreement with Georgia at a ceremony in the capital Tbilisi, the last governmental agreement necessary for the launch of the first phase of the project in July this year. "This is yet another remarkable milestone which paves the way for the development of the world class Shakh Deniz gas field...and the construction of a new gas pipeline from Baku," David Woodward, President of...