South Ossetia claims Georgian spy plane shot down

South Ossetian forces have shot down a Georgian spy plane, officials in the breakaway province said today.

Mikhail Mindzayev, South Ossetia's interior minister, said the drone had crossed into South Ossetia from the south, meaning it was from Georgia. The claim was dismissed by Tbilisi, where a Georgian interior ministry spokesman, Shota Utiashvili, said Mindzayev was "seeing things".

Russia this week stepped up its defiance of the west by recognising as independent South Ossetia and Abkhazia, Georgia's two separatist regions. The move was denounced by the west as an attempt by Russia to redraw the map of Europe and in contravention of UN security council resolutions.

As the west hammered away at Moscow diplomatically, the Russian president, Dmitry Medvedev, today appealed to the five other leaders of an Asian security alliance for unanimous support over Georgia [... Guardian]