Tbilisi, Georgia - US Vice President Dick Cheney arrived in the capital of Georgia on Thursday in a show of support for the pro- Western government after Russian troops pushed into the former Soviet state in a brief war over its separatist regions.

Cheney is the highest ranking US official to visit Georgia since the fighting in mid-August and his visit is timed with Washington's announcement that it was boosting aid to the former Soviet republic.

Managua - The leftist Sandinista government of Nicaragua became the second country - after Russia - to recognize the break- away Georgian provinces of South Ossetia and Abkhazia.

The president of the Central American country, Daniel Ortega, said late Tuesday before the leadership of the Nicaraguan Army that he supports the plan by Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin to bring these territories closer to Russia.

Moscow - Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov will visit Poland to discuss a controversial US anti-missile defence system, the Interfax news agency reported Wednesday.

Russia's top diplomat also was likely in talks with Polish leadership to lay out the Kremlin's position on the South Ossetia war, according to the report.

Moscow  - A reporter critical of Islam was shot and mortally wounded in Russia's restive Dagestan province, the Interfax new agency reported Wednesday.

An unknown person or persons fired at least two bullets into Abdullah Alishaev, a local television journalist, as he was driving through the Dagestan provincial capital Malachkala Tuesday evening.

The bullets struck him in the head and shoulder. Doctors at the city hospital treated the injuries, but Alishaev died from his wounds.

Alishaev, sometimes going by the name Telman Alishaev, was a well- known media personality in Dagestan for his appearances as moderator of the TV-Chirkey and "World to Your Home" television shows, Ekho Moskvy television reported.

Ankara  - Turkey and Russia on Tuesday failed to find a solution to a
growing trade dispute with Turkey's Foreign Minister Ali Babacan merely
saying that he hoped the situation would be solved soon.

In what has been seen as retaliation for Turkey allowing US warships
into the Black Sea to deliver aid to Georgia, Russia has imposed new
import controls on lorries carrying Turkish goods that have resulted in
hundreds of Turkish lorries lining up at Russian border points.

Berlin - A majority of Germans believe Russia could stake further territorial claims along its borders, following its military incursion into Georgian territory last month, according to a poll published Tuesday.

The poll carried out by the Emnid institute found that 60 per cent of German citizens regarded the threat of further territorial claims as "realistic," whereas 34 per cent saw the incursion into Georgia as a one-off event.

Germans have some comprehension of Russian anxieties, with 63 per cent understanding that Russia feels threatened by plans to station elements of a US anti-missile shield in Poland and the Czech Republic.