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.

Tblisi/Moscow - A high-ranking local politician was killed Saturday in an explosion in Georgia along with another resident of a community just outside the breakaway region of Abkazia, local media reported.

Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili dubbed it a "terrorist act" and called together his security council in the capital Tblisi.

Abkazian leaders denied involvement in the attack.

Moscow - At least three counter-demonstrators were arrested during opposition rallies Saturday, the Interfax agency reported.

Opposition groups which are not represented in the national parliament, the Duma, staged demonstrations for political and social reforms held under the motto "day of rage," with some 400 people participating in a rally in Moscow and around 150 in St. Petersburg.

Moscow  - Texan space tourist Richard Garriott returned to firm ground Friday in a Russian Soyuz capsule that carried him and two Russian cosmonauts back from space.

The capsule with Richard Garriott, a computer games designer and son of NASA astronaut Owen Garriott, touched down safely around 0330 GMT at the Baikonour base on the steppes of Kazakhstan. Garriott paid 30 million dollars to follow in his father's footsteps.

Brussels  - The head of the European Union's monitoring mission in Georgia on Friday invited Russian and South Ossetian officials to substantiate their claims that attacks are being perpetrated in the region so that they may be investigated.

"In general, such reports are overblown. There may have been isolated shootings, but no major incident has been registered," Ambassador Hansjorg Haber, head of the EU's monitoring mission (EUMM), said at a press conference in Brussels.