New Delhi, July 21: Ending more than 40 years of negotiations, Russia will soon return 174 sq km of territory on the northeast border to China.

The two countries will sign an agreement to this effect during Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov’s two-day visit to Beijing that starts today.

According to the agreement to be signed, Russia will return Yinlong Island (Tarabarov Island) and half of Heixiazi Island (Bolshoi Ussuriysky Island).

The islands are at the confluence of the Heilongjiang and the Wusulijiang rivers that serve as the natural border between the two countries, the China Daily reported.

New York - US real-estate mogul and casino operator Donald Trump has sold his villa in Palm Beach, Florida, for 95 million dollars to fellow billionaire Dmitry Rybolovlev of Russia, a newspaper reported.

The price was believed to be the highest ever paid for a single-family home in the United States and bucked the trend of falling home prices in the wake of its US subprime mortgage crisis.

"I love breaking records, and this is a record," Trump, who is also known for starring in the reality-television show The Apprentice, told the Palm Beach Post.

Trump's asking price for the 2-and-a-half-hectare, beachfront property had been 125 million dollars, and he told the newspaper that Rybolovlev had made a great deal.

Moscow - Serbia's foreign minister said Thursday he is confident a gas pipeline deal with Russia will be approved by the Balkan nation's parliament.

Moscow - Lightning killed three people Thursday and hospitalized six others with electric burns in Russia's Volga region of Bashkortostan, a local emergency service spokesman said.

Moscow  - Russian oil tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky applied for parole on Wednesday, gambling on a reprieve under Russia's new President Dmitry Medvedev, his lawyer told journalists in Moscow.

"It took all our strength to convince Mikhail Borisovich (Khodorkovsky) to take this step," Yuri Schmidt who heads his defence was quoted by news agency Interfax as saying.

"Today, we handed a request for parole to the Chita regional court," he said, naming the city in east Siberia where Khodorkhovsky is serving the fifth year of his detention.

Moscow  - Russian scientists have been evacuated from an Arctic ice floe after their bas