Moscow/ Tbilisi, Georgia - The Georgian government and separatists in its region of South Ossetia deployed fighter jets to carry out bombings on one another Friday after a ceasefire declared by Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili was broken after a few hours, a news report said.

Many civilians were killed in the airstrikes, Russia's Interfax news agency reported, citing South Ossetia's Health Ministry.

The South Ossetia side for the first time deployed two Suchoi SU-25 fighter jets to bomb Georgian positions, and a short time later, Georgia sent five of the same jets to carry out attacks in South Ossetia, Interfax said.

Moscow - The funeral was being held for dissident Soviet writer Alexander Solzhenitsyn on Wednesday ahead of his burial at Moscow's 16th century Donskoy Monastery.

Several hundred people crowded the vaulted church where white- gowned priests chanted and swung thuribles, or incense-burners, over his open coffin.

Solzhenitsyn, remembered as Russia's moral conscience for his unflinching exposes on the horrors of the Soviet prison camps, died Sunday aged 89.

Jakarta - Indonesia on Wednesday received six Russian-made Mi-17-V combat helicopters as part of the country's effort to improve its existing armaments.

After a lengthy process, the six fully armed combat helicopters, ordered in 2003, arrived at the Indonesian Navy's airbase in East Java at Suarabaya, the state-run Antara news agency reported.

Rear Marshal Eris Heriyanto, director-general for defence facilities at the Indonesian Defence Ministry, said after signing notes on the helicopters' delivery that the three combat choppers would be used by the army's Aviation Centre.

The helicopter procurement process was marred by a corruption scandal which caused the state to lose around 3.24 million dollars.

Moscow - Hundreds of people paid their last respects in Moscow Tuesday to the late author and dissident Alexander Solzhenitsyn, whose body is lying in state at the Academy of Sciences in Moscow.

Hundreds of people were already waiting to enter the building before the doors opened to get a last glimpse of the respected Nobel laureate.

Next to the casket stood an honour guard and a large black-and- white photo of Solzhenitsyn.

Monte Carlo - The IAAF confirmed Thursday that it has provisionally suspended seven Russian athletes for tampering with doping samples.

"The athletes have been charged under IAAF Rules 32.2 (b) and 32.2 (e) for a fraudulent substitution of urine which is both a prohibited method and also a form of tampering with the doping control process," the governing body for track and field athletics said in a statement.

Moscow - The Russian region of Nizhny Novogorod voted on Thursday to erase California from its map - not the US state, but a deserted village by the same name.

Locals say the village, about 400 kilometers northeast of Moscow, dates to the 19th century when a whimsical aristocrat moved his peasants there and dubbed the settlement California after learning of Russia's sale of Alaska to the United States, news agency Itar-tass reported.

But in 2000 the local school, store and post office closed down, and California became a ghost town. Most residents have moved to another village seven kilometers away, where they are known as Californians.