AP - Russia and key Western nations remained at odds Thursday over a U.N. resolution aimed at bringing peace to Georgia, with the U.S., France and Britain insisting on immediate withdrawal of Russian troops and a commitment to Georgia's territorial integrity, according to U.N. diplomats.

AP - Russia is countering a French push for immediate withdrawal of Russian troops from Georgia by circulating a competing U.N. Security Council resolution.

Reuters - Russia circulated its own draft U.N. resolution aimed at bringing peace to Georgia to the Security Council on Wednesday, a day after blocking a rival Western draft that demanded an immediate Russian withdrawal.

AFP - Glasgow was named a UNESCO City of Music in recognition of its musical past and role in present-day music-making and enjoyment.

AP - U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon is planning to visit Myanmar at the end of this year to hold talks on the country's political problems, the main opposition party said Wednesday.

AP - Russia took the first steps toward a troop pullback from Georgia on Tuesday but at the same time paraded blindfolded and bound Georgian prisoners on armored vehicles and seized four U.S. Humvees.

Reuters - The U.N. Security Council on Tuesday condemned the overthrow of Mauritania's democratically elected president but the country's ambassador said the public supported the military action.

AP - Backed by the United States and European powers, Georgia pleaded Tuesday for the U.N. Security Council to demand that Russia immediately withdraw its troops from its small neighbor.

AFP - Ecuador's Galapagos Islands, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, were under a botanical alert Tuesday after a destructive Mediterranean fruit fly (medfly) was detected on the archipelago, the Agricultural Health Service (SESA) said.

AFP - The United Nations commemorated the fifth anniversary of the bombing of its office in Baghdad that killed 22 staffers, including top envoy Sergio Vieira de Mello.

AP - Russian soldiers took about 20 Georgians in military uniform prisoner at a key Black Sea port in western Georgia on Tuesday, blindfolding them and holding them at gunpoint, and commandeered American Humvees awaiting shipment back to the United States.

Reuters - Bosnian Serb war crimes suspect Radovan Karadzic has asked the United Nations tribunal in The Hague to replace the judges who are overseeing the preparatory stage of his trial for charges including genocide.

AFP - The United Nations on Tuesday commemorated the fifth anniversary of the bombing of its office in Baghdad that killed 22 staffers, including top envoy Sergio Vieira de Mello.

Reuters - A key United Nations rights body voiced alarm on Monday at mounting racial violence in Russia and called on Moscow to take firm action against ultra-nationalist and neo-Nazi groups and hate speech in the media.