Moscow - Russia oil major Lukoil will sign a 1.35 billion-euro (1.73 billion-dollar) deal to purchase a stake in Italian refiner ERG and enter into a joint venture that would allow it to break into European markets.

The deal was expected to be formalized during Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi's visit to Moscow Thursday.

"The transaction with ERG will be closed on December 1. Lukoil will pay cash during the year," Lukoil CEO Vagit Alekperov told news agency Interfax on Thursday.

Moscow - Russian investigators have detained a suspect who confessed to the murder of two Jesuit priests in their Moscow apartment, the Interfax agency reported Thursday.

Interfax quoted a police source Thursday as saying the Russian suspect was arrested at 6 am (0300 GMT) and was a repeat sex offender from the town of Tver north of Moscow. He was charged with four counts of rape but there were also suspicions that the 38-year-old may have been a male prostitute.

New Delhi, Nov 6 : Union Minister of Petroleum and Natural Gas Murli Deora has returned this morning from a successful visit of Russia.

During his meeting with Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin on Wednesday, Deora referred to India’s desire for formation of joint venture between ONGC Videsh Limited
(OVL) and Rosneft for taking up exploration and development projects in east Siberia.

Monte Carlo - The IAAF, the governing body of world athletics, has imposed two-year doping bans on eight Russian athletes for testing positive a varied of substances, including the banned blood-booster EPO.

It emerged Thursday that the athletes are mostly from the sport of walking and include Vladimir Kanaykin, the 20-kilometre walk world record holder, and Alexsey Voyevodin, 50km bronze medalist at the Athens Olympics in 2004, who both tested positive for EPO in an out- of-competition test in Saransk in April.

Moscow- At least five people were killed in the explosion of a mini-van on Thursday in the Russian city of Vladikavkaz, just across the border from South Ossetia where Russia fought a war with Georgia in August, news agencies reported

Another five people were injured in the blast outside the entrance to a movie theater and market on Kuibysheva street in the populous southern Russian city, a police source told Interfax.

Monte Carlo - The IAAF, the governing body of world athletics, has imposed two-year doping bans on eight Russian athletes for testing positive for the banned blood-booster EPO.

It emerged Thursday that the athletes include Vladimir Kanaikin, the 20-kilometre walk world record holder, and Alexei Voyevodin, 50km walk bronze medalist at the Athens Olympics in 2004.

Last month, seven Russian athletes were suspended for two years by the Russian Athletics Federation (ARAF) for tampering with doping samples.

The athletes named included Yelena Soboleva, who earlier this year set a world indoor record in the women's 1,500 metres and two-time world 1,500 champion Tatyana Tomashova.