Tskhinvali, South Ossetia  - Thank God for the economic crisis, says the local man in charge of South Ossetia's reconstruction: it sent Russian investors clamoring to take part in the rebuilding of this tiny Caucasus region - or so he says.

Information is hard to come by in this isolated breakaway state, where European ceasefire monitors and international aid workers have been barred access, but a different picture has leaked in the Russian press.

The government is growing increasingly queasy over how its generous aid money is being spent and potential investors are refusing to fork up to Kremlin pleas as long as its burly separatist leader remains at the helm.

Moscow/Tbilisi - Georgia elected a snappy disco tune that takes a swipe at Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin for its Eurovision contest song entry hosted by Moscow this year.

Georgia had initially said it would boycott the song contest after its war with Russia in August, but has opted instead for a soft-power punch.

"We Don't Wanna Put In" belted out by the group Stefan & 3Gs is a rather bald play on words on the Russian premier's name.

Geneva - All sides involved in the talks on last summer's Georgia conflict agreed Wednesday in Geneva to set up a telephone hotline and hold weekly meetings on security incidents.

However, other issues at the eight-party talks at the UN's headquarters in the Swiss city, such as joint missions to conflict areas and humanitarian assistance, and even the date for the next round of talks, remain stalled.

Warsaw - Georgian Foreign Minister Grigol Vashadze during a meeting

Geneva  - Delegates from eight parties started the newest round of talks Tuesday on last year's conflict between Russia and Georgia, though negotiations have so far yielded little results.

The talks at the United Nations' Geneva office will focus on humanitarian and security issues, including a mechanism to prevent and resolve future armed incidents near or within the breakaway regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia.

While the parties have agreed to the mechanism in principle, they were still debating the details of how it would function.

Tskhinvali, South Ossetia - The memory of war in this tiny patch of farm country sunk in the shadow of the Caucasus mountains is long and violent. But the raw anger among South Ossetians huddled amid the freezing, roofless ruins of the recent war in separatist province is sharpened against a new antagonist.

Europeans might be stunned today to find the pained outrage here targeted at its ceasefire monitors - part of an EU-brokered peace pact that ended the five days of fighting between Russian and Georgia over the region in August.