Moscow - Russia and Hungary agreed to set up a joint venture to build the Hungarian stretch of the South Stream pipeline, Russian Premier Vladimir Putin said Tuesday after talks with his Hungarian counterpart Ferenc Gyurcsany in Moscow.

Russian gas export monopolist Gazprom and Hungary's energy firm MOL also plan to build new underground storage facilities in the agreement inked Tuesday, Putin was cited by news agency Interfax as saying.

Moscow - Russian President Dmitry Medvedev on Tuesday hailed as "entirely positive" his impression of US President Barak Obama ahead of the two leaders' meeting on the sidelines of the upcoming G20 summit in London on April 1-2.

"The signals we are receiving, and that I am personally receiving, from the US president are entirely positive," Medvedev was quoted by news agency Interfax as saying in a meeting with foreign experts from a commission on bilateral relations.

Riga  - Tensions rose Monday between Latvia and Russia ahead of a planned march to commemorate Waffen-SS soldiers on March 16, as Latvian foreign minister Maris Riekstins blasted Russian claims the Baltic state was glorifying Nazism.

"Nobody in Latvia is praising fascist ideology," Riekstins said during a TV interview on Monday.

On March 7, Russian media quoted an anonymous Russian foreign ministry source describing the Legionnaire's Day commemoration as a "Nazi supporters march" and drew parallels between it and Holocaust denial.

Geneva  - US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton met Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov to "reset" the relationship between the two countries and discuss a broad range of issues, including nuclear proliferation and arms reduction.

"We are hopeful that this first meeting will lead to others and improve our ability to work together on a range of matters significant to our two countries and the world," Clinton said after the meeting.

London, Mar 6 : In this age of green power and greener pastures, improving the image of the nuclear power industry is imperative. Consequently, Russia has come up with unique scheme -an online beauty pageant!

A beauty contest has been launched in Russia to find the new 'Miss nuclear reactor 2009'.

In all, there are 200 contestants who are in some way connected to the nuclear power business, reports The Sun.

With the help of the pageant, organisers are trying to prove that women who work within the industry have beauty as well as brains.

Contestants complain that people assume they have been mutated in some way by radiation.

Brussels  - There was a spring wind blowing in Brussels on Thursday as US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton met NATO counterparts to discuss their problems with Afghanistan and Russia.

That atmosphere was mirrored inside the alliance's grim, grey headquarters building, as ministers lined up to hail the United States' new chief diplomat.

"There is a fresh wind in NATO," German Foreign Minister Frank- Walter Steinmeier said to describe Clinton's approach to diplomacy.