Leaders urge calm after death of Georgian PM

Shaken Georgian leaders have made a plea for calm after Prime Minister Zurab Zhvania was found dead in a friend’s apartment, a blow to President Mikhail Saakashvili’s ambitious pledges to wipe out corruption and resolve two simmering separatist conflicts.

A key ally of Saakashvili and Zhvania, parliament speaker Nino Burdzhanadze, cut short a private visit to Italy and returned to Georgia today, calling for the government not to lose momentum despite “a big loss for Georgian politics and the Georgian state”.