Beijing - A small cave-in and surface cracks preceded the collapse of a road into a subway tunnel in eastern China, but did not lead to the suspension of construction work, state media said on Monday.

Rescue workers were still removing the steel frame from the tunnel so that they would be able to dig for 14 people still missing since the collapse on Saturday in the city of Hangzhou, China Central Television said.

Stockholm - The Swedish government has revised its economic outlook and does not rule out recession in one scenario, Finance Minister Anders Borg said Monday.

The two main scenarios suggest that growth will either be flat next year or, in the worst case, shrink 1.2 per cent.

"The global financial crisis is the worst since the depression (in the 1930s) and the Swedish financial markets have their worst crisis since the 1990s," Borg told reporters.

According to one of the finance ministry scenarios, the crisis will worsen with falling prices and export demand. In combination with the credit crunch, the Swedish economy will grow just 0.1 per cent in 2009, and 2.0 per cent in 2010.

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 : U. S. President elect Barack Obama''s remark suggesting Washington''s scope in facilitating a solution to decadesold Kashmir dispute between India and Pakistan, has generated a new optimism in Pakistan.

In an article titled "Obama for Kashmir solution" published in The Nation, former Pakistan Foreign Secretary Shamshad Ahmad states Obama realises that no strategy or roadmap for durable peace in the region including in Afghanistan would be comprehensive without focusing on the underlying causes of conflict and instability.

The latest James Bond flick 'Quantum of Solace' generated some lackluster reviews, but despite that has set an opening-weekend record for the 46-year-old film franchise- selling an estimated $70.4 million in tickets in North American theaters, for Sony Corp. and Metro- Goldwyn-Mayer Inc.

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.