New York - Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov Saturday told the UN General Assembly that the European security infrastructure had failed in "recent events" and called for a new Europe-wide security treaty.

Lavrov said that in the conflict in the Caucasus, the "existing architecture of security in Europe did not pass the strength test in recent events."

Moscow - President Dmitry Medvedev has announced a comprehensive modernization of Russia's armed forces and its nuclear weapons, Russian media reported Saturday.

By 2020, there would be complete overhaul of the nuclear deterrent, Medvedev said at the conclusion of military exercises in the Urals.

The plans include a new generation of nuclear submarines and cruise missiles, as well as better coordination of the country's missile defence system with reconnaissance satellites in space.

Recent events in Georgia's breakaway regions of South Ossetia and Abkhazia had brought the security situation to a head, he said.

Moscow - Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez met with his Russian counterpart Dmitry Medvedev on a two-day Russian tour Friday as the countries expand military ties and close ranks in opposition to the United States.

Going into talks with Medvedev, Chavez reiterated his "full and firm" support for Russia in its war with Georgia last month, which the US roundly condemned.

Medvedev and Chavez were meeting in the southern Russian city of Orenburg, near the border with Kazakhstan, where the Russian president is touring the regions.

New York, Sept. 26: Alaska Governor and Republican vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin insisted on Thursday that her home state’s proximity to Russia constituted her foreign policy experience.

In a sit down interview with CBS' Katie Couric, Palin indirectly revealed her poor foreign policy credentials by stating "Well, it certainly does because our - our next-door neighbors are foreign countries," referring to Russia and Canada.

Asked if she had held negotiations with Russia, Palin said: "We have trade missions back and forth."

Warsaw - Poland as well as the rest of Europe and the United States have to deal with an increasingly aggressive Russia, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said in statements published Thursday in the country's biggest daily.

Poland was a US key ally in the region, Rice said in a statement in the Wyborcza newspaper, and said Russian leaders were currently making bad choices.

Referring to Russia's recent conflict with Georgia, Rice said the Kremlin should respect the sovereignty of its smaller neighbors. Russia's actions, she said, are pushing it toward the path of isolation.

Moscow - Russia's General Prosecutor's office on Thursday ordered a special investigative team to probe the murder of high-profile Chechen politician and former pro-Kremlin lawmaker Ruslan Yamadayev.

Yamadayev was gunned down in central Moscow on Wednesday.

He was the oldest brother in a powerful Chechen clan that has clashed with Kremlin-appointed Chechen President Ramzan Kadyrov.

Business dailies Kommersant and Vedemosti led with headlines calling Yamadayev's murder the death of Kadyrov's greatest enemy.