Moscow- Russian police were on Tuesday scanning public video recordings in their search for the killers of a high-profile lawyer and journalist, whose murders in public drew international attention.

Police officials confirmed that no suspects had been identified yet.

Attorney Stanislav Markelov and journalist Anastasia Baburova were shot dead in public after a press conference on Monday afternoon, only a 10-minute walk from the Kremlin.

Markelov was killed immediately by an assailant armed with a silencer-fitted firearm on Prechistinkaya street, in downtown Moscow.

Moscow  - Russia signalled on Monday it would overhaul its 2009 budget against the backdrop of plummeting oil prices, Russia's main export commodity, and a forced devaluation of the rouble.

Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin on Monday ordered the finance ministry to review the 2009 budget, based on an average price of oil at 41 dollars per barrel.

Moscow - Russia and Ukraine were set to iron out the final details Monday on an accord to end a 12-day halt on gas deliveries to Europe, but the European Union remained sceptical as it counted the economic costs of the crisis.

Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko is expected back in Moscow on Monday for the signing of the agreement she negotiated with her Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin in talks that ran into the early hours of the morning.

Moscow - Russia's Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov called on Iran and Syria on Friday to bring pressure to bear on the radical Palestinian Hamas movement to accept a plan proposed by Egypt for a truce in the Gaza Strip.

"We need to put all our strength behind Egypt's plan for an end to the fighting in Gaza," Lavrov told journalists at a briefing in Moscow.

"If we take this path in particular, we are sending the appropriate signal to Hamas representatives and to those states that have influence on Hamas, above all this means Iran and Syria," he said.

Moscow  - At least five people were killed in a crash of two military aircraft on a military landing strip in Dagestan, a Russian republic in the North Caucasus, officials told Russian news agencies Thursday.

The aircraft - both type Ilyushin 76 - were carrying members of the military.

The accident happened amidst a fog cover. One aircraft had already landed, and the second was about to land but aborted because of the weather, reports said.

The exact cause of the accident was unclear.

Moscow - Falling energy prices and the ongoing financial crisis have pushed the Russian rouble to an historic low against the dollar, according to the Russian central bank.

As reported by Interfax, the bank moved Thursday for the fourth time since the start of the year to broaden the range for currency fluctuations versus a basket of currencies comprised of the dollar and the euro.

The official exchange rate was posted at 32.21 roubles to the dollar, a rate 65.19 kopeks higher than on Wednesday.

The previous low of 31.88 roubles to the dollar was hit six years ago, according to Interfax.