Moscow - A Russian Soyuz space capsule Friday returned to Earth safely, carrying its crew of Russian cosmonauts and a US space tourist.

The capsule with Richard Garriott, a computer games designer and son of NASA astronaut Owen Garriott, who paid 30 million dollars to follow in his father's footsteps, landed safely around 0330 GMT in the Kazakh steppe.

"Start and landing went according to plan. Now helicopters and search units are flying to the landing site," Valeri Lyndin a spokesman of the flight control near Moscow, was quoted as saying by the Interfax news agency.

Moscow - Some 15 people were kidnapped by alleged Islamic militants in Russia's strife-torn North Caucasus region, while at least eight police officers were injured in mine explosions, media reports said Friday.

Masked gunmen abducted up to 15 civilians in the Russian republic Ingushetia, the Interfax news agency reported the republic's Interior Ministry as saying.

In Chechnya, eight police officers were injured when two mines exploded in buildings, the agency said. Both incidents took place late Thursday evening.

Moscow - Russia's Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Thursday accused the EU mission in Georgia of ignoring escalating violence in buffer zones set outside the rebel regions under a ceasefire accord.

"We are concerned by the careless attitude toward what is happening in these zones. This is a dangerous game, they are playing with fire," Lavrov told journalists in Moscow.

Moscow - Moscow - Europe's biggest, most dynamic and hectic city - is impressive. But the fast-paced lives of Muscovites slow to a crawl as soon as they get into their cars each morning.

Bumper-to-bumper traffic is a side effect of Moscow's economic boom. Even on a normal weekday, about 650 traffic jams - totalling some 700 kilometres in length - will clog the streets. The average speed during rush hour is about 8 to 11 kilometres per hour.

Brussels - Georgia was Wednesday promised a higher-than- expected 4.55 billion dollars in aid over the next three years to help it recover from its 5-day war with Russia.

Pledges were made by some 40 countries and 15 international organizations attending a donors' conference in Brussels.

The total far exceeded the 3.2 billion dollars that the World Bank had estimated Georgia would need to rebuild its infrastructure, settle its refugees and get its economy back on track.

Moscow  - Russia said Wednesday it could start an oil reserve as part of an effort with OPEC countries to bolstered prices down by half since July peaks.

OPEC Secretary General Abdullah al-Badri met with President Dmitry Medvedev on a two-day visit to coordinate policy with Moscow Wednesday before an emergency session of oil-exporting countries in Vienna Friday to discuss stop-gap measures to halt plummeting prices.