Moscow - Russian energy monopoly Gazprom and aluminium mining giant RusAl clinched deals on Monday for development projects in Vietnam during the visit of the country's president to Moscow.

Vietnamese President Nguyen Minh Triet and his Russian counterpart President Dmitry Medvedev were at the signing of the joint projects at the Kremlin after talks on boosting trade and energy ties.

Gazprom and it overseas operations arm ZarubezhNefteGaz sealed a deal with Vietnam's state oil firm PetroVietnam for joint exploration of the Asian state's offshore oil reserves.

Moscow - Texan space tourist Richard Gariott said Monday the Russian space agency and NASA should give business entrepreneurs wider access to the International Space Station (ISS).

Silicon Valley millionaire Garriott, who made his fortune designing fantasy computer games, said he fit the profile as he spoke with journalists three days after landing back to earth from his tour of the space station.

"I think NASA and Roscosmos and other partners in the ISS should take broad steps to encourage businessmen, such as myself, to take advantage of the profits to be had in the space sphere - it would be a huge loss not to," Garriott was quoted by news agency Interfax as saying from the cosmonauts training base in Star City outside Moscow.

Vienna - Besides Deutsche Lufthansa AG, Russian carrier S7 Airlines is also still in the race for taking over Austrian Airlines AG, Austria's state holding OeIAG announced Monday.

Moscow  - Vietnamese President Nguyen Minh Triet held talks with President Dmitry Medvedev and other top Russian officials at the Kremlin on Monday to boost trade and energy ties.

The talks including the head of Russian energy giant Gazprom Alexei Miller and Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov were expected to touch joint development of Vietnam's offshore oil reserves.

"In the last years many good and successful projects have been realized between us. These have been in the oil and gas sphere, power industry and the mining sector," Medvedev told journalists ahead of the talks, news agency Interfax reported.

Moscow - John McCain's US presidential campaign begged at the enemy's door this week when a wayward letter reached the desk of Russia's UN envoy Vitaly Churkin in New York asking for a donation.

The Russians wouldn't spare a ruble for the Republican, and sent McCain a sardonic message saying that unlike the United States, the Russian government does "not finance political activity in foreign countries."

In fact, Russian officials aren't banking on either McCain or Democratic nominee Barack Obama mending relations upturned by Russia's recent war with US-ally Georgia.

Moscow - At least four people were reported killed when a helicopter on a test flight after repairs crashed near Kazan Sunday in the Russian republic of Tatarstan.