Moscow - Russia has urged the international community to show restraint in its reaction

Moscow - Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and Chilean President Michelle Bachelet have called for an end to the US embargo of the Caribbean island of Cuba, at a meeting in Moscow on Saturday.

Moscow and Santiago called for the integration of Cuba into the "regional multilateral structures," a joint communique from the two heads of state said.

Medvedev and Bachelet also signed agreements on military cooperation, energy-sector cooperation and space, the Interfax news agency reported.

New York  - UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said Friday that US-Russian leadership is vital to implement treaties banning the proliferation of nuclear weapons.

US President Barack Obama and his Russian counterpart Dmitri Medvedev agreed during their meeting in London Wednesday to commit to draw up a new deal on nuclear disarmament to replace the US- Russian strategic weapons reduction programme (START) which expires at the end of 2009.

Kiev/Moscow - Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko for the first time suggested an openness to having early elections as around 50,000 opposition supporters protested in Kiev on Friday against the forces of the president's so-called Orange Revolution of 2004.

Yushchenko was ready "to make a decision about simultaneous (presidential and parliamentary) elections," the Interfax news agency quoted the Ukrainian head of state as saying, adding that: "I have no fear of early elections."

Moscow  - Russian law enforcement has re-arrested a man who had only recently been cleared of charges in the 2006 murder of journalist Anna Politkovskaya.

The suspect, who previously worked in a Moscow agency fighting organized crime, has been charged with blackmailing a witness, reported the Interfax news agency on Thursday, citing sources in the investigation.