Moscow  - Pro-Kremlin lawmaker and former Chechen fighter Ruslan Yamadayev was shot dead in an apparent contract killing in central Moscow on Wednesday, Russian news agencies reported.

"At 17:20 an unknown man approached the car at the red traffic light, shot Yamadaev and injured the other passenger," the Interior Ministry said in a statement.

Washington, Sept. 24 : Democrats are keeping track of how long it''s been since the Republican presidential ticket answered questions from the media.

Washington, Sept. 24 : Democrats are keeping track of how long it''s been since the Republican presidential ticket answered questions from the media.

Opposition leader LK Advani has written a letter to former president Dr APJ Abdul Kalam requesting him to build a national consensus on Terror and the need to effect strict anti-terror laws. 

San Francisco  - After an 80-day battle with legislators, California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger on Tuesday signed a 143- billion-dollar state budget that ended a spending impasse in the richest and most populous state in the US.

The budget makes up California's 15.2-billion-dollar deficit with a combination of cuts and increased revenues and includes special provisions for a rainy-day fund intended to smooth out fluctuations in state tax revenue.

New York  - Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad defended his nation's right to possess civilian nuclear technology and used the opportunity on Tuesday in the UN General Assembly to denounce nuclear powers that want to cancel that right.

"These are the same powers that produce new generations of lethal nuclear arms and possess stockpiles of nuclear weapons that no international organizations is monitoring," he told the 192-nation assembly.