Washington, Nov. 17 : Russia has announced that it will not carry out its threats to deploy new missiles facing Europe and that the advent of a new U. S. administration provides "great opportunities" to overcome other differences with the United States.

Russian President Dmitri Medvedev announced this in Washington on Saturday on the sidelines of a G-20 leaders’ meeting that was discussing solutions for arresting the global economic meltdown.

Chicago, Nov. 17 : U. S. President-elect Barack Obama has announced the appointment of three key White House advisers over the weekend.

Jakarta  - The powerful undersea earthquake that struck Indonesia's North Sulawesi province and nearby regions early Monday killed at least one person, injured three others and collapsed hundreds of buildings, officials said.

The quake at 01:02 am (1702 GMT Sunday) measured 7.7 on the Richter scale. Its epicentre was located about 138 kilometres north- west of Gorontalo on North Sulwesi, about 1,950 kilometers east- northeast of Jakarta. It occurred about 10 kilometres beneath the seabed.

Los Angeles  - Firefighters on Sunday were battling three wildfires in southern California that have destroyed hundreds of homes and forced thousands of residents to be evacuated, local media reported.

The blazes had destroyed hundreds of homes since Thursday, including 500 mobile homes in Sylmar, where officials on Sunday were use dogs to search for bodies of possible victims. About 630 structures were destroyed in that fire alone, the Los Angeles Times reported.