Georgia Prime Minister Irakli Garibasvili's government collapsed Wednesday after a seventh minister quit his 20-member Georgian Dream coalition cabinet.

"I am resigning from my post," sports minister Levan Kipiani told a press conference. The move spells the end of the cabinet, as replacing one-third of its members automatically requires the entire cabinet to dissolve.

Germany on Friday criticized Russia for signing an alliance with Georgia's breakaway region South Ossetia this week, joining a chorus of Western condemnation.

"With this treaty, Russia once more puts into question Georgia's territorial integrity and sovereignty," German government spokeswoman Christiane Wirtz said.

Russia on Wednesday signed a wide-ranging alliance with Georgia's breakaway region of South Ossetia that will further cement its control over the territory despite fierce condemnation from the West.

President Vladimir Putin inked a deal in Moscow with South Ossetian leader Leonid Tibilov that officially makes Russia responsible for defending the self-declared republic, where the Kremlin has stationed thousands of troops since a war with Georgia there in 2008.

The only U.S. woman on Georgia's death row is scheduled to be executed late Monday for conspiring to murder her husband nearly two decades ago.

Kelly Gissendaner's team had still not filed an appeal early Monday at the U.S. Supreme Court, her last possible recourse, court sources said. 

Deputy NATO head Alexander Vershbow on Thursday praised Georgia's democratic reforms and reiterated the alliance's commitment to the ex-Soviet country's eventual membership in the 28-nation bloc.

"We truly commend the reforms aimed to strengthen your defense, rule of law, and governance," Vershbow told reporters in the Georgian capital Tbilisi after a meeting with the country's Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili.

Severe weather slammed the southern U.S. two days before Christmas killing at least four people and knocking out power to thousands.

In Mississippi, Gov. Phil Bryant declared an emergency for two southeastern counties where officials said four people died in the storms and several more were injured. His office said thousands were without power Tuesday night around Columbia, which is about 80 miles (130 kilometers) southeast of Jackson.

Georgia accused Russia on Friday of planning to broker a deal with the breakaway Georgian region of South Ossetia that would cement Moscow's dominance over another former Soviet territory.

Last month, Russian President Vladimir Putin inked a "strategic partnership" agreement with Georgia's rebel Abkhazia region that increased Moscow's military, economic and diplomatic clout in the pro-Russian enclave.

Russia cemented control over neighboring Georgia's rebel Abkhazia region Monday with a "strategic partnership" deal that the Georgian government said amounts to annexation.

President Vladimir Putin signed the "alliance and strategic partnership" agreement which formalizes Russian dominance of the tiny separatist region's foreign policy, armed forces and economy, as well as placing Russian guards on the border with the rest of Georgia.

White smoke belches from the chimney of a lopsided stone house, mingling with thick fog in Georgia's Pankisi Gorge whose bucolic setting hardly fits its reputation as a jihadist hotbed.

Temur Batirashvili, a 70-year-old subsistence farmer, warms his hands over a rusty stove as he tells the story of his son, one of the most feared commanders with the Islamic State group in Syria.

Georgia's Foreign Minister Maia Panjikidze resigned Wednesday amid a political crisis that has gripped the ex-Soviet republic following the prime-minister's decision to sack his pro-Western defence minister.