* Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said:

// Nov. 02, 2006 - 05:27 GMT

MOSCOW, November 2 (RIA Novosti) – The Russian and Egyptian leaders will discuss Thursday in Moscow boosting bilateral trade and economic cooperation, a Kremlin spokesman said.

// Nov. 02, 2006 - 06:08 GMT

MOSCOW, November 2 (RIA Novosti) – Russia's gold and foreign currency reserves grew by $1.8 billion to $269.1 billion as of October 27 from $267.3 billion a week earlier, the Bank of Russia said Thursday.

// Nov. 02, 2006 - 06:51 GMT

Despite of the sociological reports and poll results that predict decline in the number of "native residents" of the Jewish Autonomous Region in the Russian Far East, the community life in the regional capital Birobidjan is continuing to develop. Another proof of this fact was a recent visit to the region by a delegation of the Euro-Asian Jewish Congress headed by EAJC General Council member, Jewish Community of Japan President Daniel Turk.

// Nov. 02, 2006 - 07:15 GMT

MOSCOW, November 2 (RIA Novosti) – Russia's investment index will open Thursday at 689.76 points, up 1.95% on the previous day's trading, following Wednesday evening's sessions on major world trading floors.

// Nov. 02, 2006 - 07:15 GMT

TEHRAN, November 2 (RIA Novosti) – Iran has successfully launched several dozen long-range ballistic missiles during large-scale military exercises that began Thursday, an Iranian television station reported.

// Nov. 02, 2006 - 07:54 GMT

BISHKEK, November 2 (RIA Novosti) – The opposition in Kyrgyzstan said Thursday it will go ahead with a demand that the president step down because he has backtracked on an agreement reached Tuesday to give parliament a greater say in running the Central Asian state.

// Nov. 02, 2006 - 08:05 GMT

MOSCOW, November 2 (RIA Novosti) – Three Russian deputy ministers have been called to task for delays in preparing regulations that led to a crisis on Russia's alcohol market this year, Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Zhukov said Thursday.

// Nov. 02, 2006 - 08:12 GMT

Lawmakers in Georgia's separatist province of South Ossetia urged the UN Secretary General Kofi Annan and OSCE Chairman-in-Office Karel De Gucht " to recognize the genocide of South Ossetians in 1920 and in 1989–1992 as well as to recognize the legal and moral responsibility of Georgia for the genocide of South Ossetians".

// Nov. 02, 2006 - 08:13 GMT

YUZHNO-SAKHALINSK (Russia's Far East), November 2 (RIA Novosti) – A court in Russia's Far East has convicted a South Korean citizen of currency smuggling, the local prosecutor's office said Wednesday.

// Nov. 02, 2006 - 08:20 GMT