KIRKUK, Iraq (Reuters) – The failure of Iraqi politicians to resolve competing ethnic claims for the oil-rich northern city of Kirkuk is storing up explosive problems for the country’s future.

MOSCOW (Reuters) – Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov urged the United States to persuade Georgia to halt what Moscow called its “aggression” against South Ossetia, the Russian Foreign Ministry said on Friday.

TBILISI (Reuters) – Russian bombing killed about 30 Georgians but Georgia’s forces now control the rebel South Ossetian capital and the surrounding area, Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili said in a live television address on Friday.