Moscow - Three liberal parties currently not represented in the Russian parliament (Duma) have decided to join forces under the new party name "Just Cause," Russia media reported Saturday.
The parties - the Union of Just Forces (SPS), the Democratic party and the Citizens' Force - announced on Saturday in Moscow that they would be disbanding and forming a unit to contest March 2009 parliamentary elections, former SPS deputy chairman Leonid Gosman was quoted by the Interfax news agency as saying.
Moscow - One man was killed and two injured in an exchange of fire in the Georgian breakaway region of Abkhazia on Saturday, officials in the Abkhazian capital Sukhumi said.
The clash took place after Abkhazian border troops discovered a group of six people attempting to cross the border from mainland Georgia near the city of Gali, the Interfax agency cited Abkhazian officials as saying.
The casualties in the firefight were said to be intruders, who Abkhazia claims were Georgian saboteurs.
There was no comment from the Georgian side on the incident.
Nice, France - A row over US and Russian plans to site missiles in Europe, the global financial crisis and European Union diplomacy in Georgia topped the agenda Friday when EU and Russian leaders met in the French resort of Nice.
"There should be no (missile) deployment in any enclave until we have discussed the new geo-political terms for pan-European security ... until then, please let's not talk about the deployment of missile shields," French President Nicolas Sarkozy said in a double-barrelled blast at Russia and the US.
Sarkozy currently holds the rotating presidency of the EU.
Nice, France - If the United States and Russia cannot solve the row over their respective plans to site missiles in Europe and agree a new security treaty, Europe should do it for them.
That, at least, was the message French President Nicolas Sarkozy gave on Friday in his capacity as current holder of the European Union's rotating presidency.
"There should be no deployment in any enclave until we have discussed the new geo-political terms for pan-European security ... until then, please let's not talk about the deployment of missile shields, which don't bring security and which complicate things," Sarkozy said in a double-barrelled blast at Russia and the US.
Nice, France - If the United States and Russia cannot solve the row over their respective plans to site missiles in Europe and agree a new security treaty, Europe should do it for them.
That, at least, was the message French President Nicolas Sarkozy gave on Friday in his capacity as current holder of the European Union's rotating presidency.
Brussels - Russian President Dmitry Medvedev's plans for a Europe-wide security pact look set to be Russia's priority at the European Union-Russia summit in the French resort of Nice on Friday.
Medvedev first spoke of his desire to create a "treaty on the basic principles for security and intergovernmental relations in the Euro-Atlantic region" in a speech in Berlin on June 5. He added details in a speech in the French spa town of Evian on October 8.
Moscow - Three liberal parties currently not represented in the Russian parliament (Duma) have decided to join forces under the new party name "Just Cause," Russia media reported Saturday.
Moscow - One man was killed and two injured in an exchange of fire in the Georgian breakaway region of Abkhazia on Saturday, officials in the Abkhazian capital Sukhumi said.
Nice, France - If the United States and Russia cannot solve the row over their respective plans to site missiles in Europe and agree a new security treaty, Europe should do it for them.
Brussels - Russian President Dmitry Medvedev's plans for a Europe-wide security pact look set to be Russia's priority at the European Union-Russia summit in the French resort of Nice on Friday.
