Moscow - President Dmitry Medvedev said Thursday Russia was ready for better relations with US president-elect Barack Obama, one day after a speech that seemed to be a direct challenge to the next US leader.

The comments came after Medvedev said in his first-state-of-the- nation that he would deploy Iskander missiles in Russia's European enclave of Kaliningrad to "neutralize" US missile shield plans.

Brussels - The European Union is close to a deal on re-starting talks on a strategic treaty with Russia which it froze following Russia's occupation of Georgia, diplomats said Thursday.

But Lithuania, in particular, is still against any such move, especially since Russian President Dmitry Medvedev on Wednesday threatened to site missiles across Lithuania's border in the Russian exclave of Kaliningrad, sources told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa.

Moscow - Russia oil major Lukoil will sign a 1.35 billion-euro (1.73 billion-dollar) deal to purchase a stake in Italian refiner ERG and enter into a joint venture that would allow it to break into European markets.

The deal was expected to be formalized during Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi's visit to Moscow Thursday.

"The transaction with ERG will be closed on December 1. Lukoil will pay cash during the year," Lukoil CEO Vagit Alekperov told news agency Interfax on Thursday.

Moscow - Russian investigators have detained a suspect who confessed to the murder of two Jesuit priests in their Moscow apartment, the Interfax agency reported Thursday.

Interfax quoted a police source Thursday as saying the Russian suspect was arrested at 6 am (0300 GMT) and was a repeat sex offender from the town of Tver north of Moscow. He was charged with four counts of rape but there were also suspicions that the 38-year-old may have been a male prostitute.

New Delhi, Nov 6 : Union Minister of Petroleum and Natural Gas Murli Deora has returned this morning from a successful visit of Russia.

During his meeting with Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin on Wednesday, Deora referred to India’s desire for formation of joint venture between ONGC Videsh Limited
(OVL) and Rosneft for taking up exploration and development projects in east Siberia.

Monte Carlo - The IAAF, the governing body of world athletics, has imposed two-year doping bans on eight Russian athletes for testing positive a varied of substances, including the banned blood-booster EPO.

It emerged Thursday that the athletes are mostly from the sport of walking and include Vladimir Kanaykin, the 20-kilometre walk world record holder, and Alexsey Voyevodin, 50km bronze medalist at the Athens Olympics in 2004, who both tested positive for EPO in an out- of-competition test in Saransk in April.