Moscow/Kiev - Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin met Thursday with Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko for talks on natural gas and other energy issues.

Putin and Tymoshenko held the discussions in a Russian government country mansion in the village of Novo-Ogarevo, outside Moscow.

The top issue for the two prime ministers was gas shipments between the two countries, particularly Russian pricing for gas sold to Ukraine, and Ukrainian pricing for gas shipped by Russia via Ukrainian pipelines to European consumers.

Moscow/Kiev  - Russian President Dmitriy Medvedev and German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Thursday were at odds over the Caucasus in opening statements delivered at an international forum devoted to soothing rising tensions between Moscow and Western nations.

Merkel, in her opening remarks at the conference, called "The Petersburg Dialogue" called for increased understanding between Europe and the Kremlin, but at the same time criticized Medvedev and his government for Russia's hardline policies in Georgia.

Moscow/Kiev - A Russian Boeing 737 landed with its landing gear up on Thursday, suffering substantial damage but leaving passengers and crew unharmed.

The aircraft operated by the Russian airline KD Avia made the landing at the main airport of the Baltic port city Kaliningrad after a uneventful flight from Barcelona, Spain.

Moscow - The tragedy of the Russian school accident when five schoolgirls were killed in a stairwell collapse deepened Thursday when it became known that their teacher committed suicide.

Russian police were cited by the Interfax agency as saying that the teacher, 43 and herself the mother of two children, hanged herself.

The director of the school, located in the Orenburg district, 1,500 kilometres south-east of Moscow, had described how the teacher was "completely devastated" by Wednesday's stairwell collapse.

Besides the five schoolgirls in the 11th grade, six other youngsters were injured in the accident.

Berlin  - Moscow will not let itself be drawn into a confrontation with the West, a senior Russian diplomat said Wednesday, one day before a top-level Russian-German meeting.

"We haven't broken off dialogue. We haven't pulled back the hand (of friendship)," ambassador to Berlin, Vladimir Kotenyev, said in an interview with Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa.

"We favour cooperation at international level with all players. Russia is not going to let itself be drawn into a confrontation."

Germany's Chancellor Angela Merkel was set to meet with Russian leaders on Thursday in St Petersburg, Russia for annual talks.

Moscow  - At least five students were killed when a school stairwell collapsed, a spokesman for the Russian Civil Defence Ministry said Wednesday.