Moscow/Tbilisi  - Georgian police arrested at least seven opposition supporters on arms charges Monday in a raid that their party called a "campaign of terror" ahead of protests against President Mikheil Saakashvili next month.

The Interior Ministry said 10 people had been arrested for purchasing automatic weapons and rolled video footage at a press conference late Monday that it said showed the involvement of members of the opposition party led by Nino Burjanadze, news agency Interfax reported.

Moscow/Tbilisi - Georgia's interior ministry said Tuesday that two European ceasefire monitors had been detained by South Ossetia militia on the border of the separatist region and Georgia.

A spokesman for the ministry, Shota Utiashvili, told news agency Interfax that the two monitors from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) were detained near the Georgian- controlled village of Adziv and taken to the separatist capital Tskhinvali.

Tbilisi  - "Georgia would have to be crazy to go to war with Russia, and we are not crazy," President Mikheil Saakashvili told a reporter from Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa in a May interview.

Saakashvili's analysis - the first half of it at least - was certainly proven accurate by August's South Ossetia War. Russia's army demolished Georgia in a lightning campaign, as the biggest gamble of the Georgian leader's life came up a bust.

The South Ossetians and Georgians had fought once before, in 1991. By the summer of 2008, Saakashvili and the Kremlin were in open conflict over control of South Ossetia, a renegade Georgian province boasting de facto independence with its government defying Tbilisi's right even to set foot in the region.

Moscow/Tbilisi - The government of Georgia sees room for restoring diplomatic relations with Russia despite the war the two nations fought in August, says Georgia's new foreign minister, according to a Russian newspaper.

"We are open to negotiations," said Grigol Vasadze, quoted in the Monday edition of Kommersant, a Moscow daily.

Commentators say Vasadze's appointment is a positive sign for relations between Russia and Georgia. Vasadze lived in Russia for 30 years and still holds Russian citizenship.

Tbilisi - Georgia has broken off ties with Nicaragua after the latter recognized the independence of the breakaway Georgia regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia, media reports said Saturday.

The government in Tbilisi delivered a note to the Nicaraguan ambassador to the United Nations notifying him of the formal break in diplomatic relations, the Interfax news agency reported.

On September 2, Nicaragua became second country in the world after Russia to recognize the independence of the two regions following Georgia's August war with Russia.

Moscow/Tbilisi - Two Georgian police officers were killed when a land mine exploded near the border of South Ossetia, where Georgia went to war with Russia in August.

The Georgian Interior Ministry said the mine detonated while the policemen were on patrol in the border village of Dvani around 7:15 am (0415 GMT) on Monday.

A second mine exploded shortly after, injuring three policemen who arrived at the scene to help, the ministry said in a statement.

Dvani is just south-west of the separatist capital of South Ossetia near the Georgian of Gori in a buffer zone occupied by Russian troops until EU military observers replaced them last month.