Brussels - The European Union and Russia on Tuesday re- opened high-level talks on a new strategic treaty which EU leaders froze in September to protest Russia's invasion of Georgia.

The meeting between Russia's ambassador to the EU, Vladimir Chizhov, and EU negotiator Eneko Landaburu was intended to discuss the "general architecture" of a future deal, sources in the European Commission, the EU's executive, said.

Relations between Russia and the EU are currently governed by a Partnership and Cooperation Agreement (PCA) agreed with the government of Boris Yeltsin in 1997.

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London, Dec 2 : Archaeologists have uncovered rare sculptures from the late Stone Age at Zaraysk, 150 km south-east of Moscow in Russia.

According to a report by BBC News, the findings have yielded figurines and carvings on mammoth tusks, including a cone-shaped object whose function “remains a puzzle” to the archaeologists.

Such artistic artefacts have been found in the nearby regions of Kostenki and Avdeevo, but this is the first such discovery at Zaraysk.

The new artefacts, discovered by Hizri Amirkhanov and Sergey Lev of the Russian Academy of Sciences, include a mammoth rib inscribed with what appear to be three mammoths, a small bone engraved with a cross-hatch pattern, and two human figurines presumed to be female.

Tbilisi - Georgia has broken off ties with Nicaragua after the latter recognized the independence of the breakaway Georgia regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia, media reports said Saturday.

The government in Tbilisi delivered a note to the Nicaraguan ambassador to the United Nations notifying him of the formal break in diplomatic relations, the Interfax news agency reported.

On September 2, Nicaragua became second country in the world after Russia to recognize the independence of the two regions following Georgia's August war with Russia.

Havana  - For the second time in little over a week, retired iconicCuban leader Fidel Castro met with a high-level dignitary visiting the Caribbean island, keeping is meeting with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev on Friday under wraps.

Medvedev had already finished the official portion of his visit with Cuban President Raul Castro, Fidel's brother who took over as president earlier this year.

Medvedev's official visit of less than 24 hours was the first by a Russian president to Cuba in eight years. With the dissolution of the Soviet Union in the 1990s, Russia stopped pouring financial aid into Cuba.

Havana  - Cuban President Raul Castro on Friday described as "magnificent" the visit of Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, who also met Cuban leader Fidel Castro.

"It has been a magnificent visit," Raul Castro told reporters, after he and Medvedev laid a wreath at the Mausoleum of the Soviet Internationalist Soldier, which honours 68 soldiers who died in Cuba in 1962-1966, either while taking part in disaster relief work or as a result of accidents.

Medvedev and Fidel had an hour-long meeting during which they discussed the future of Russian-Cuban cooperation and international political issues.

Medvedev's official visit of less than 24 hours, is the first by a Russian president to Cuba in eight years.