Moscow  - Russia views the European Union's pledge to invest in the modernization of Ukraine gas pipeline system as "an unfriendly act" against Moscow, the Foreign Ministry said Thursday.

"What happened in Brussels at the forum, we see as an unfriendly act in relation to Russia by both the European Union and Ukraine," foreign ministry spokesman Andrei Nesterenko told journalists.

Moscow - Russia on Thursday expressed fear the Czech premier's resignation, midway through the country's EU presidency, would "break up" an EU-Russian summit set for May 21-22.

"We very much hope that the Czech domestic political situation does not effect the speed and intensity of the talks between Russian and the EU and does not breakup the full agenda set for the period of the Czech EU presidency - above all at the EU-Russia summit," deputy foreign minister Andrei Nesterenko told journalists.

Moscow - Russia's Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Thursday that an international conference on Afghanistan hosted by Moscow would help coordinate global efforts to stabilize the country.

"These (meetings) are directed at increasing the effectiveness of the international cooperation and in its action to support the Afghan leadership's struggle against the threat of terrorism and drug-trafficking," Lavrov was quoted by news agency Itar-tass as saying after talks with his Kyrgyz counterpart.

Moscow - US software billionaire Charles Simonyi became the world's first two-time space tourist as the 19th mission streaked to the International Space Station (ISS) on Thursday.

Mission commander cosmonaut Gennady Padalka and NASA astronaut Michael Barratt joined Simonyi in the cramped Soyuz capsule for the two-day flight to dock with the space station on Saturday.

The crew blasted off punctually at 1149 GMT from Russia's Baikonur cosmodrome on the Kazakh steppes.

Moscow  - At least 14 people were killed in a col

Minsk  - Thousands marched against Belarus' authoritarian regime on Wednesday, as opposition groups held rare public gatherings throughout the former Soviet republic.

More than 4,000 demonstrators gathered in the capital Minsk, some carrying the flag of the European Union, banners proclaiming "Independence!" and the banned red-white-red flag of 1918 Belarus.

The marches came on a semi-official Belarusian holiday known as Will Day that marks the short-lived independent Belarusian republic formed in 1918, and destroyed by invading Soviet troops months later.