Moscow - Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov will visit Poland to discuss a controversial US anti-missile defence system, the Interfax news agency reported Wednesday.

Russia's top diplomat also was likely in talks with Polish leadership to lay out the Kremlin's position on the South Ossetia war, according to the report.

Moscow  - A reporter critical of Islam was shot and mortally wounded in Russia's restive Dagestan province, the Interfax new agency reported Wednesday.

An unknown person or persons fired at least two bullets into Abdullah Alishaev, a local television journalist, as he was driving through the Dagestan provincial capital Malachkala Tuesday evening.

The bullets struck him in the head and shoulder. Doctors at the city hospital treated the injuries, but Alishaev died from his wounds.

Alishaev, sometimes going by the name Telman Alishaev, was a well- known media personality in Dagestan for his appearances as moderator of the TV-Chirkey and "World to Your Home" television shows, Ekho Moskvy television reported.

Moscow  - Russia escalated the war of words over the Georgian conflict Tuesday, calling the former Soviet republic's political leadership "bankrupt."

"President Mikheil Saakashvili no longer exists for us - he's a political corpse," said Russian President Dmitry Medvedev in an interview with Italian television RAI. The text of his comments was released by the Kremlin.

Medvedev emphasized Russia's willingness to help reconstruct in the two regions that were the source of the August conflict.

Moscow/Tbilisi  - Georgia's government will soon lift martial law, a senior official said Tuesday.

The temporary regulations giving President Mikheil Saakashvili near-total authority for wartime command in the former Soviet republic will be cancelled on Wednesday, said David Bakradze, speaker of the Georgian parliament.

The repeal is necessary to allow Georgia's suffering economy to return to a more normal footing and "for a more normal rhythm of life," Bakradze told the Interfax news agency.

Georgia's parliament on August 9 approved martial law at Saakashvili's request.

Moscow - Diplomats from Russia's Foreign Ministry on Tuesday said they were pleased with a European Union decision not to impose sanctions on the Kremlin over Georgia.

Officials speaking to the Interfax news agency said the EU's choice at a crisis summit on Monday to ask Russia to remove troops in Georgia, rather than attempt to exert economic or political pressure, was a sign a majority of EU nations were seeking "a path of partnership" with Russia.

The moderate EU position on Georgia would assist "both sides in mutually-advantageous cooperation," a Foreign Ministry spokesman said.