Main news of August 9

RUSSIA

* Russia's peacekeeping command said the country's troops have driven Georgian forces from the capital of the separatist republic of South Ossetia 

* Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said that the country's troops have begun a military operation in Georgia's separatist region of South Ossetia to force Georgian troops to cease violence

* Russia's Prime Minister Vladimir Putin arrived in Vladikavkaz, in Russia's republic of North Ossetia, to discuss assistance for South Ossetia following the outbreak of hostilities in the breakaway region

* Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said that 1,500 people have been killed in South Ossetia since the start of Georgia's attack on the breakaway republic

* Lyubov Galkina has won Russia's first Olympic medal, taking the silver in the 10m air rifle event in Beijing

WORLD

* Georgia's parliament accepted President Mikheil Saakashvili's declaration of martial law as the country battled with Russia for control over breakaway South Ossetia

* United States President George W. Bush said he was deeply concerned by the escalating conflict between Russia and Georgia over the separatist republic of South Ossetia

* The Russian president told his U.S. counterpart that Russia's ongoing military operation in Georgia's breakaway republic of South Ossetia is aimed at forcing Georgia to accept peace

* Weightlifter Chen Xiexia won China's first gold medal of the Beijing Olympics in the women's 48-kilogram category

* A U.S. man was killed and another two people injured by a Chinese man who then committed suicide, in an apparently random attack at a popular tourist spot in Beijing, Xinhua news agency said

* Around 100 homes in western parts of Ukraine remain underwater following heavy rains that struck the region at the end of July, the country's Emergencies Ministry said

* At least 60 people have died and many are still missing in northern Vietnam as tropical storm Kammuri caused landslides and floods across the region, Vietnamese officials said