Moscow - Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has submitted a bill to parliament on extending the presidential term from four to six years, a Kremlin spokeswoman said Tuesday.

Medvedev announced he was seeking the constitutional amendment in his state-of-the-nation address last week.

His administration can easily muster the two-thirds majority in parliament needed to enact the change after the dominant pro-Kremlin party headed by his predecessor Vladimir Putin swept the polls in last years' vote.

But legal experts say the term extensions would only apply to future presidents.

Bucharest - Rapid Bucharest's general manager Constantin Zotta an

Moscow - Prime Minister Vladimir Putin sought to ease fears Tuesday over the possibility of Russia joining an Opec-style cartel of gas exporting countries, he said in talks with his Egyptian counterpart Ahmed Nazif.

"We support this idea. But we know about apprehensions and even fears voiced by certain energy consumers," Putin was quoted by news agency Interfax as saying. "I wish to state once and for all: there are no grounds for such fears."

Helsinki - In the wake of two school shootings, a petition calling for a Finnish ban against handguns was handed over Tuesday to Interior Minister Anne Holmlund.

Some 57,000 people signed the online petition, Finnish news agency STT reported.

Finnish authorities have introduced stricter rules for gun permits including the rule that two police officers were to interview prospective applicants jointly.

A first-time applicant was also not to be allowed to get a license for a handgun without having been a member of a shooting club for at least a year.

London/Paris - Commemorations to mark the 90th anniversary of the end of World War I were held in Britain and France Tuesday, made particularly poignant by the participation of the last survivors in Britain from the conflict branded "the war to end all wars."

In London, Prime Minister Gordon Brown attended a solemn ceremony and two-minute silence at the Cenotaph memorial which were led by the three remaining World War I veterans in Britain whose lives have spanned the entire 20th century.