A car bomb went off Friday in the capital of South Ossetia, Tskhinvali, killing seven Russian peacekeepers. Georgia has denied any involvement in the bombing and accused Russia of using the incident to try to delay its pullout from the buffer zone near South Ossetia, RIA Novosti reported.

"A new escalation in the South Caucasus is causing concern," the Russian ministry's press department said.

The Russian ministry said Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has sent a letter to his French counterpart, Bernard Kouchner, outlining "Russia's concerns regarding the provocation and deteriorating situation in the security zone."

The letter said Russia intends to withdraw its peacekeepers from Georgia by Oct. 10.

"Nevertheless, we firmly intend to fulfill the obligations agreed between the Russian and French presidents on the withdrawal of Russian peacekeepers from Georgia on Oct. 10, 2008," the ministry said.

Under a European Union-brokered peace deal, Russia has pledged to pull all troops out of the undisputed parts of Georgia within one month, leaving peacekeepers in South Ossetia and Abkhazia.

FEC questions McCain campaign fundraising WASHINGTON, Oct. 6 (UPI) -- U.S. elections officials are looking into possible fundraising violations by the campaign of Republican presidential nominee John McCain, records indicate.

On the same day that the Republican National Committee asked the Federal Election Committee to look into fundraising by the campaign of Democratic nominee Barack Obama, The Washington Post reported Monday that the FEC sent a letter to the McCain campaign last week demanding more information about "contributions that appear to exceed limits."

The letter was accompanied by nine pages of information on campaign donations listed in the campaign's August finance report suggesting donors exceeded the legal limit for contributions, the newspaper said.

"Please inform the commission of your corrective action immediately in writing and provide photocopies of any refund checks and/or letters re-attributing or redesignating the contributions in question," the letter said. "The acceptance of excessive contributions is a serious problem."

The RNC complaint filed Monday alleged the Obama campaign has accepted excessive contributions and donations from foreign nationals, and has "failed to take the necessary remedial action required by law."

RNC Chief Counsel Sean Cairncross said in a statement, "We see this as a wide-scale problem and it appears the Obama campaign may be in substantial non-compliance with federal campaign finance laws."

Obama spokesman Bill Burton told The Hill the Democrat's campaign exceeded transparency requirements by disclosing its bundlers -- supporters who collected donations from other individuals -- and by disclosing how much each bundler has raised.

Obama leads nationally by eight points PRINCETON, N.J., Oct. 6 (UPI) -- Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama leads Republican John McCain by eight points among registered U.S. voters, a poll indicates.

The Gallup Poll Daily tracking shows Obama leads McCain 50 percent to 42 percent. Gallup said Obama has had a statistically significant lead for 10 days.

"This ten-day stretch of a significant Obama lead is the longest since he became the presumptive nominee back in early June, and the longest for either candidate at any point in the campaign," Gallup said in its analysis.

For the Gallup Poll Daily tracking, results are based on combined data from Oct. 3 to Oct. 5. The poll of 2,744 registered voters has a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 2 percentage points.

Jury hears secret Stevens tape-recording WASHINGTON, Oct. 6 (UPI) -- Indicted U.S. Sen. Ted Stevens, R-Alaska, said he didn't think he had done anything wrong, tape-recordings played in a Washington courtroom Monday revealed.

In secretly recorded phone conversations, Stevens -- who is on trial for allegedly failing to disclose $250,000 in gifts and home renovations -- can be heard telling his friend, businessman Bill Allen, now a chief prosecution witness, that while he believed they were innocent they could expect to be fined and possibly serve jail time if found guilty, The Washington Post reported.

"They aren't going to shoot us. It's not Iraq," Stevens said on one call. "Hell, the worst that can happen to us, is that we run up a bunch of legal fees ... might pay a fine, may spend a little time in jail.

"I don't think we have done anything wrong. I can't think of a thing we have done is wrong."

Stevens' attorneys are seeking a mistrial, claiming they've found more evidence of prosecutorial misconduct. In a motion filed Sunday, his lawyers said material they received Friday at the order of U.S. District Judge Emmet G. Sullivan revealed what they said was "intentional misconduct" by the Justice Department to conceal information that would have helped prove Stevens' innocence, The New York Times reported Monday.

The judge had not yet ruled that their request.

Stevens, 84, the longest-serving Republican in the Senate, is seeking re-election in November.