Moscow - A Russian court reversed its decision Tuesday to open to the public the trial of three men charged with the murder investigative journalist Anna Politkovskaya.

The Moscow District Military Court ruled that the media and public would be barred from the trial after the jury's refusal to hear the case in front of the press.

Moscow - A Kremlin bill to extend the presidential term from four to six years was almost unanimously voted through its second reading Wednesday in Russia's lower house of parliament.

The proposed constitutional amendment now faces one final reading.

While President Dmitry Medvedev launched the draft law, constitutional experts say the law would not apply to him.

Many analysts say he is just a seat warmer setting the way for 12 more years of Vladimir Putin in the Kremlin. Currently serving as prime minister, Putin has not ruled out another presidential term.

Putin backed the term extensions this week but said it was "premature" to say who they might benefit.

London, Nov 19: Russia is planning to raise a shipwreck that contains Catherine the Great’s treasures like precious porcelain, gold, silver, bronze and Dutch paintings.

According to a report in the Telegraph, the Frau Maria, which sank in 1771, was commissioned by Catherine the Great to transport precious porcelain, gold, silver, bronze and 27 paintings by Dutch masters for her art collection, which became the basis for the Hermitage museum in St. Petersburg.

But, the ship was struck by a storm in October 1771 and sank 41 metres (135 feet) off the coast of what was then Sweden, according to Artem Tarasov, head of the Rescue of National Cultural and Historic Valuables fund.

Tarasov said that the project would take two years.

Valencia, Spain  - Jaap de Hoop Scheffer, secretary general of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), said Tuesday that the alliance should re-evaluate its relations with Russia without severing them.

The relations should be reconsidered after Russia's "disproportionate" use of force in Georgia, but not broken because they were a "strategic asset," Scheffer said at the
54th annual meeting of the NATO parliamentary assembly.

The assembly adopted a resolution urging Russia to respect the sovereignty of other nations as about 300 delegates from 50 countries were wrapping up their five-day meeting in the eastern Spanish city of Valencia.

Geneva  - Georgia is expected to request an international peacekeeping force in the breakaway regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia Wednesday during the second round of talks in the wake of its war with Russia this summer.

The Georgian Foreign Ministry want the international troops to replace Russian forces currently in the areas, reported the RIA Novosti news service.

Georgia is also expected to ask for a Russian troop withdrawal from areas where it says the Russian forces are in violation of a French-brokered ceasefire.

South Ossetia, for its part, accused Georgia over the weekend of violating the agreement and firing at a sentry post inside the rebel region.

Dubai, 18th Nov. 2008 -- Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai HH Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum received today CEO of Russian Technologies State Corporation Sergei Chemezov.

Sheikh Mohammed and his guest took stock of the global economic situation and the role of governments in anchoring national economies in line with a new long term approach based on balanced policy and capable of crafting a remedy to ills of the international financial order.