New York  - Georgia on Monday renewed a charge that more Russian troops were being deployed in South Ossetia and Abkhazia despite a ceasefire brokered by the European Union following the brief war in August.

The two breakaway regions have seceded from Tbilisi and are recognized by Moscow.

Moscow  - Works by William Turner, one of Britain's most prized artists, went on display Monday at Moscow's Pushkin Museum, the first time the artists' works have been exhibited in Russia in 33 years.

The show, which borrows the works from London's Tate Britain gallery, is entirely sponsored by Russian metals tycoon Alisher Usmanov, the largest shareholder in the London-based Arsenal football team. It comes despite the current financial crisis and diplomatic relations between the two capitals that have been on eggshells in recent years.

Moscow  - Two Georgian soldiers were killed when a landmine exploded in a village near the border of the disputed region of South Ossetia, according to a statement by the Georgian Interior Ministry on Monday.

Another nine people including a ten-year-old boy were injured in the blast at around 3 pm (1100 GMT), the ministry said.

According to the statement, the soldiers were in the Georgian village of Pavali to inspect an Russian spy drone that the ministry said crashed in the border zone just hours earlier.

Moscow - A Russian military court will allow public and media access to the trial of three men charged over the murder investigative journalist Anna Politkovskaya, it ruled in a crucial first hearing Monday.

Police officer Sergei Khadzhikurbanov and two Chechen brothers, Dzhabrail and Ibragim Makhmudov, stand accused of plotting the murder of Politkovskaya, gunned down in front of her central Moscow flat in 2006.

Investigators are still hunting for a third Chechen man, Rustam Makhmudov, suspected of being the pointman in the contract killing.

New Delhi, Nov. 17 : India is looking forward to strengthening its energy cooperation with Russia, especially in the nuclear field, Foreign Secretary Shivshankar Menon said here today.

"Both India and Russia are keen to expand nuclear cooperation. All the preparatory work has been done", Menon said, inaugurating an international conference on "Changing Patterns of Indo-Russian Cooperation" at Observer Research Foundation.

Washington, Nov. 17 : Russia has announced that it will not carry out its threats to deploy new missiles facing Europe and that the advent of a new U. S. administration provides "great opportunities" to overcome other differences with the United States.

Russian President Dmitri Medvedev announced this in Washington on Saturday on the sidelines of a G-20 leaders'' meeting that was discussing solutions for arresting the global economic meltdown.

"I believe we have great opportunities to restore relations to the fullest extent, and we can build them on a new foundation," the Washington Times quoted Medvedev as saying during an address to the Council on Foreign Relations.