South Ossetia grows more tense

Police fired warning shots to disperse supporters of the self-proclaimed leader of South Ossetia, who promised more rallies Thursday. Education Minister Alla Dzhioyeva claimed a victory in a presidential election in Georgia's breakaway republic of South Ossetia. She did so despite a court annulment of the election that followed a runoff vote showing Kremlin-backed Emergency Minister Anatoly Bibilov apparently lost the vote. She told around 1,000 people rallying in her support Wednesday in the republic's capital of Tskhinvali to go home after security forces fired warning shots into the air. She later said her supporters were planning to take to the streets again Thursday. "I do not know exactly where we will hold it but there definitely will be a rally," she was quoted by Russia's state-run news agency RIA Novosti as saying. Russia went to war with Georgia in 2008 over South Ossetia and Abkhazia, another breakaway republic. NATO officials have said they won't recognize the political aspirations of either republic. Stratfor, a private intelligence company in Texas, said further conflict can be expected of the situation in South Ossetia intensifies.