Main news of August 3

RUSSIA

* The threat of war between Georgia and its breakaway region of South Ossetia is becoming increasingly real, the Russian Foreign Ministry said

* Wealthy Russians who live in London refused to help the Bolshoi Theater hold a unique exhibition of costumes and artwork in the British capital, the U.K.'s Sunday Telegraph reported

* Police seized about 3 kg (7 pounds) of heroin from a Tajik national in the Russian Urals city of Yekaterinburg, a local police source said

WORLD

* Warsaw needs to sign a treaty on the deployment of elements of a U.S. missile shield on its territory before the upcoming U.S. presidential elections, Polish President Lech Kaczynski said

* Georgia's breakaway region of South Ossetia said that Georgia was pulling troops close to its borders

* Georgia rejected the reports that it was moving its troops close to the border with its breakaway region of South Ossetia

* The death toll in a stampede at a temple in northern India rose to more than 120 people, local media reported

* At least 60 laborers were killed after an overloaded truck they were travelling plunged into a river in eastern India, local television said

* At least nine people were killed and over 90 wounded in fighting between the radical Islamist faction Hamas and a pro-Fatah clan in the Gaza Strip, the enclave's health officials said

* An international conference on combating the acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS) will be held in the Mexican capital from August 3 through August 8, the forum's organizers said

* A Latvian referendum on giving people the power to dissolve parliament failed to win enough support, with less than half the eligible electorate going to the polls, the national election committee said