Georgia to lift state of emergency as News Corp unit remains off air

Georgia:Georgia will lift its state of emergency today, but it is not clear whether a television channel co-owned by an opposition leader and tycoon Rupert Murdoch will be allowed back on air.

Parliament voted yesterday to lift emergency laws imposed by president Mikhail Saakashvili last week after police action ended several days of rallies that attracted up to 70,000 people to the centre of the capital, Tbilisi, to protest against his rule.

"The nation is no longer in danger, so there is no need to extend the state of emergency," said parliamentary speaker Nino Burjanadze. "The state of emergency will be lifted on November 16th, and we will switch to a normal life."

Mr Saakashvili gave approval for emergency rule to be lifted after calm returned to Tbilisi following what he called an attempted coup that was led by opposition politicians, funded by a Georgian billionaire and masterminded by Moscow.

Georgia has expelled three Russian diplomats and prosecutors are seeking at least two opposition leaders believed to have fled to Moscow, along with Badri Patarkatsishvili, Georgia's richest man and owner of the Imedi television station.

Mr Patarkatsishvili, thought to be in Israel, sold a large stake in the station to Rupert Murdoch's News Corp recently, and vowed to finance the opposition.

He also announced he would run against Mr Saakashvili in a snap presidential election in January, but a court has suspended Imedi's licence for broadcasting a speech in which Mr Patarkatsishvili allegedly incited a coup.

"To allege that News Corp is involved in a Russian-backed coup is beyond ludicrous. We are immediately appealing this decision in the Georgian courts," said News Corp chairman Martin Pompadur.

Mr Saakashvili also took flak yesterday from Moscow, which disapproves of his drive to join the European Union and Nato and to establish Georgia as a key US ally in a strategic area that for centuries has been deep inside Russia's sphere of influence.

Russia's foreign ministry said the emergency measures and "harassment of the opposition . . . confirms the impression that the early elections are a farce designed to keep power in the hands of the current leadership".

Russia announced yesterday that it had withdrawn the last of its troops from Soviet-era bases in Georgia, but Mr Saakashvili accuses Moscow of deploying soldiers and weaponry in separatist regions of Georgia which are propped up by Kremlin support.