Georgia

Keralite accused of killing estranged wife captured in Georgia

Atlanta (Georgia, US), Nov. 25: A Keralite based in Sacramento, California, who was accused of fatally shooting two people, including his estranged wife, in a New Jersey church, was captured late Monday in Georgia.

New Jersey District U. S. Marshal James Plousis said Joseph "Sanish" Pallipurath was captured around midnight Monday in Monroe, east of Atlanta.

According to the Sacramento Bee, the manhunt for Pallipurath was centered on Georgia because the suspect has relatives in the area, authorities said.

Police said Pallipurath, 27, gunned down three people, including his estranged wife, Reshma James, at the St. Thomas Syrian Orthodox Knanaya Church in Clifton, New Jersey, a suburb about 15 miles west of Manhattan.

Lavrov: Ossetia border shooting staged by Georgia

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei LavrovMoscow - Shots fired at the Polish and Georgian presidential motorcade near the South Ossetian border were staged and "yet another provocation" by Georgia, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Monday.

Georgia said Russian forces had opened fire on the motorcade carrying Polish and Georgian Presidents Lech Kaczynski and Mikheil Saakashvili on Sunday from the airport in Tbilisi to a settlement near the Ossetian border.

Russia-Georgia talks "productive," next meeting planned

Geneva  - All the delegations attended "constructive" talks on the Russia-Georgia conflict Wednesday and agreed to meet again for another round of negotiations next month, the European Union representative to the discussions said.

"We had constructive meetings of the two working groups," said Pierre Morel. As planned, the two groups, with eight delegations in total, met on security and refugee issues for about three hours each.

The first round of talks last month ended with Moscow and Tbilisi accusing each other of walking out without the two sides having sat in the same room.

"Today, we have taken a big step forward," said Morel, adding that the talks had entered a "fully operational phase."

Russia-Georgia talks "productive," next meeting planned

GeorgiaGeneva - All the delegations attended "constructive" talks on the Russia-Georgia conflict Wednesday and agreed to meet again for another round of negotiations next month, the European Union representative to the discussions said.

"We had constructive meetings of the two working groups," said Pierre Morel. As planned, the two groups, with eight delegations in total, met on security and refugee issues for about three hours each.

Delegations arrive for Russia-Georgia talks in Geneva

Geneva - The delegations from Russia, Georgia and the breakaway regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia arrived Wednesday morning at the United Nations in Geneva for a second round of talks since they went to war in the summer.

Also attending the meetings are representatives from the United States, European Union, UN and Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE).

An official with the self-declared Abkhazian government said he hoped the talks would be "constructive" but stressed that there would be no plenary meeting.

"It will be eight individuals in groups working together," said Maxim Grinjia, a deputy to the foreign minister.

Georgia expected to request peacekeepers at Geneva talks

Geneva  - Georgia is expected to request an international peacekeeping force in the breakaway regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia Wednesday during the second round of talks in the wake of its war with Russia this summer.

The Georgian Foreign Ministry want the international troops to replace Russian forces currently in the areas, reported the RIA Novosti news service.

Georgia is also expected to ask for a Russian troop withdrawal from areas where it says the Russian forces are in violation of a French-brokered ceasefire.

South Ossetia, for its part, accused Georgia over the weekend of violating the agreement and firing at a sentry post inside the rebel region.

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