World at a glance
Condoleezza Rice heads to Tbilisi to deliver formal ceasefire agreement
Friday, 15, Aug 2008 11:17
US secretary of state Condoleezza Rice is heading to the Georgian capital of Tbilisi today in the hope of ending the current conflict between Russian and Georgia.
Ms Rice is set to meet with Georgian president Mikhail Saakashvili, and will present him with a formal ceasefire agreement.
The US has been openly critical of Russia's military actions in the South Ossetia region with president George Bush calling on Moscow to honour its agreement to withdraw.
While Ms Rice meets with Mr Saakashvili to deliver the proposed agreement by French president Nicolas Sarkozy, German chancellor Angela Merkel will meet with Russian president Dmitry Medvedev to urge Moscow to end the conflict.
The crisis comes as Poland and the US reached agreement on a controversial missile shield deal.
The Polish prime minister Donald Tusk said that the US had agreed on improving Poland's defences in return for placing ten missile defence interceptors in the European country.
The Reuters news agency claims the deal was formally signed by John Rood, the US chief negotiator, and Andrzej Kremer, the deputy Polish foreign minister, at a ceremony in Warsaw.
The deal must still be approved by Poland's parliament however.
At the Olympics, five people, including a Briton, have been detained by Chinese police over a pro-Tibet protest in Beijing.
Philip Kirk, 24, and Australian-Canadian Nicole Rycroft, 41, climbed the headquarters of the state-owned China Central Television building to unfurl a banner reading "Free Tibet".
The pair, part of the Students for a Free Tibet group, and three other protestors were detained for their part in the demonstration on Friday.
It is claimed that the Chinese authorities forced foreign journalists away from the scene in east Beijing as they tried to end the protest.
The majority of British troops serving in Iraq could be withdrawn in the next nine months, it has been claimed.
The Telegraph newspaper quotes Major General Barney White-Spunner as saying prime minister Gordon Brown's intention for a "fundamental mission change" could take place in the coming year.
He said that the Iraqi-led crackdown on Shia militia groups in Basra had made a considerable impact and the militants would not be able to regain control of the city.
"Basrawis realised what a nightmare, literally, that was. They're not going to put themselves back through that period of violent extremism," he told the BBC today.
Back in Britain, the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) has reported a 17 per cent increase in mortgage possession claim figures from the second quarter of 2008, when compared with a year earlier.
Some 39,078 mortgage possession claims were issued on a seasonally adjusted basis, according to the figures released this morning.
However, possession orders do not inevitably lead to repossession occurring and can be abandoned at any time.
This said, there was also a sharp increase in the number of mortgage possession orders, the next stage in the repossessions process, being issued during the second quarter of the year.
And finally, in sport, Britain's team sprint cyclists have set a new world record time at the Beijing Olympics.
The trio of Jamie Staff, Jason Kenney and Chris Hoy clocked a time of 42.950 seconds to qualify for the event's final later today.
World champions France, Team GB's main rivals for gold, were behind in 43.541 secs.
Staff also set an individual record for the fastest-ever opening leg of a team sprint with a time of 17.98 secs.