The UN Security Council met in emergency session today amid rising tensions on the Korean Peninsula and a North Korean warning of a “catastrophe” if South Korea goes ahead with a live-fire drill.

The UN Security Council condemned the violence in Kyrgyzstan and calling for calm and a return of the rule of law.

Russian forces pushed a second front deep into Georgia, seizing towns and a military base in the western parts of the country.

One of the biggest US military disaster relief missions in history kicked into high gear today as an aircraft carrier battle group arrived off the shores of tsunami-battered Sumatra and began launching helicopters heavy with supplies.