Khanty-Mansiysk, Russia  - Ole Einar Bjoerndalen narrowly missed out on a 90th World Cup win Saturday when he was pipped to victory by fellow Norwegian Emil Hegle Svendsen in a 12.5-kilometre pursuit race in Khanty-Mansiysk.

In the women's 10km race, six-time world champion Magdalena Neuner of Germany took the honours, leaving the battle for the overall World Cup to be decided between Kati Wilhelm of Germany and Sweden's Helena Jonsson in Sunday's mass start event.

Washington - A Soyuz capsule with a joint US-Russian crew and a millionaire space tourist successfully docked Saturday with the International Space Station (ISS), US officials reported.

The US space agency NASA said the docking, coming two days after the Soyuz was launched from the Baikonur centre, went without a hitch and was completed at 1305 GMT, nine minutes earlier than scheduled.

The Soyuz brought Russian cosmonaut Gennadi Padalka and his US colleague Michael Barratt - who will stay on the ISS until next October - as well as US millionaire space tourist Charles Simonyi.

Khanty-Mansiysk, Russia - Ole Einar Bjoerndalen narrowly missed out on a 90th World Cup win Saturday when he was pipped to victory by fellow Norwegian Emil Hegle Svendsen in a 12.5-kilometre pursuit race in Khanty-Mansiysk.

Svendsen missed two targets in the shooting range on his way to victory in a time of 33 minutes 3.3 seconds, finishing just 0.1 seconds ahead of Bjoerndalen, who also missed two targets.

Moscow, Mar. 28 : Pakistan’s Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi has said that Pakistan is committed to play a main role in stabilizing the situation in Afghanistan.

“Pakistan has a central role in facilitating the stabilization process in Afghanistan, and we remain deeply committed to this goal,” The Nation quoted him, as saying.

Addressing the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) Special Ministerial Conference on Afghanistan in Moscow, Qureshi said that it was Pakistan’s priority to have a peaceful, stable and united Afghanistan.

Moscow - The presidents of Russia and the United States are expected to sign an agreement on strategic offensive weapons on the sidelines of a financial summit in London next week, the Kremlin has announced.

According to the Interfax news agency, citing Kremlin officials, US President Barack Obama and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev will also issue a joint statement about their nations' bilateral relations during their first meeting since Obama's inauguration in January.

The statement will have "practical applications for coming negotiations," said Sergei Prikhodko, an advisor to Medvedev.

Islamabad, Mar. 28 : Russia and China may support Pakistan in setting up new nuclear power plants to meet the country's growing energy needs.

According to The Nation sources, Moscow and Beijing are expected to bail out Islamabad from the constraints relating to establishing new nuclear power plants.

The Russia-China offer contains the conditions, that the nuclear power plants offered to Pakistan should be set up under the supervision and in collaboration with International Atomic Energy Agency, sources said.