Havana - Russia and Cuba are to revive their historically close ties, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and his Cuban counterpart Raul Castro said after talks in Havana late Thursday.

Medvedev and Castro met for several hours and, in a demonstration of friendship, Castro also joined the Russian president in visiting a recently opened Russian Orthodox church in the capital of the communist country.

Moscow plans to step up cooperation with Havana in the area of nuclear energy as well as oil and gas exploration in the Gulf of Mexico, Medvedev announced.

Moscow, Nov. 28 : Not so long ago, Vladimir Putin was adamant about changing Russia’s Constitution to allow a president to extend his or her four-year term thrice consecutively.

"The terms of presidential authority will not be changed under the current president," Putin had said unequivocally in 2001.

Now, months after leaving office and becoming prime minister, Putin is helping current President Dmitry Medvedev to rewrite the Constitution to extend the presidential term.

CARACAS, Venezuela, Nov. 27 -- The presidents of Russia and Venezuela have signed bilateral agreements, including construction of a nuclear power plant in the South American country.

The BBC reported the two leaders signed the nuclear power agreement Wednesday night.

Russian Deputy Prime Minister Igor Sechin said President Dmitry Medvedev, the first Russian head of state to visit Caracas in 150 years, and Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez signed a 25-year plan to cooperate with oil, gas and power generation, RIA Novosti reported Thursday.

Monte Carlo -

Moscow  - The son and daughter of slain investigative journalist Anna Politkovskaya took the stand in her murder trial Thursday, talking about their mother's growing sense of threat in the days before her death, news agency Interfax reported.

"She warned me she had seen strange people hanging outside the entrance of the apartment building that weren't there earlier, and told me to be cautious," said Politkovskaya's daughter Vera, who moved in with her mother about one week before she was killed.

Washington  - US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice dismissed suggestions Wednesday that Russian naval exercises in the Caribbean Sea posed a threat to the US military hegemony in the Western Hemisphere.

"I just don't think there's any question about who has the preponderance of power in the Western Hemisphere," Rice said.

Two Russian warships, a destroyer and a cruiser along with support vessels, arrived in Venezuela on Tuesday to carry out joint naval exercises next week. They are the first Russian naval activities in the Western Hemisphere since the end of the Cold War.