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.

New York - As world leaders gathered for an annual series of speeches, meetings and action this week at the United Nations, there was a new conflict that pierced the organization's usually stuffy diplomatic air.

There were no official UN meetings this week dealing with last month's war between Russia and Georgia. But the conflict was a regular topic of leaders from around the world who took turns this week addressing the UN General Assembly in New York.

Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili called on the UN to condemn Russia's "brutal invasion" and help implement a ceasefire. His tough words were backed up by the heads of other states from the region.

Ankara  - A government tender seeking builders for Turkey's first-ever nuclear power plant received just one bid, from the Russian firm Atomstroyexport, the Anadolu news agency reported Wednesday.

Thirteen companies had asked for bidding documents, but in the end just Atomstroyexport made an official bid to build the power plant in the Akkuyu district of Mersin in southern Turkey.

Environmental groups have said that the project is a danger to the environment, especially as Turkey is prone to earthquakes.