Rybinsk, Russia - Marianna Longa claimed her first career World Cup win ahead of Arianna Follis in an Italian one-two finish on Friday in a women's mass start cross-country ski race.

Longa, 29, won the 10-kilometre freestyle race in 25 minutes 22.6 seconds as she proved the strongest in a 16-skier leader group.

Follis trailed by 0.4 seconds and German Stephanie Boehler got her first career podium in third place, 1.4 seconds off the pace.

Vienna - Czech Foreign Minister Karel Scharzenberg said in Vienna on Thursday that he could imagine that the United States would delay its Central European missile shield project, one day after Russia reacted positively to a perceived shift in US policy.

Russia halted plans to deploy Iskander missiles in its European enclave of Kaliningrad on Wednesday, responding to signals that the new Obama administration would review its missile shield project to be stationed in the Czech Republic and Poland.

Moscow - The rouble's deprecation against the dollar and euro is causing havoc with Russia's financing of the 2014 Winter Olympic Games in Sochi due to the increased cost of importing raw materials.

A large percentage of the building materials and equipment needed to prepare the Black Sea resort for the Olympics need to be sourced from abroad, Thursday's Nezavisimaya Gazeta newspaper reported, citing the Olympic construction company Olimpstroj.

Moscow - Russia halted plans to deploy Iskander missiles in its European enclave of Kaliningrad Wednesday, in response a perceived shift in US President Barack Obama's policy on missile defence, a top military official was quoted by news agency Interfax as saying.

"Russia doesn't need the Iskander missiles if there won't be any US missile elements eliciting fear in Eastern Europe," the agency cited the unnamed official in Russia's military general staff as saying.

Kiev - The Ukrainian heavyweight boxer Wladimir Klitschko on Wednesday accused US boxing promoter Don King of blocking an undisputed world heavyweight title bout against Russian Nikolai Valuev.

Klitschko, 33, holds the IBF, WBO, and IBO world heavyweight titles. A fight between Klitschko and Valuev, holder of the WBA heavyweight belt, would arguably make the winner the world's unchallenged top heavyweight fighter.

Wladimir Klitschko's older brother Vitali, holds the WBC belt, but both Klitschkos have rejected the idea of their ever fighting each other.

Moscow - Cuban President Raul Castro began a week-long visit to Moscow on Wednesday, the first by a Cuban leader since the fall of the Soviet Union as Russia moves to restore ties with its Cold War ally.

Cuba's revolutionary strongman Fidel Castro twice visited the Soviet capital at the peak of the Cold War.

But relations between the two countries cooled after the collapse of the Soviet Union, the communist island's main foreign sponsor, in
1991.