In response to the military regime's automatic weapon fire to break up large scale street demonstrations against abrupt and massive fuel price rises led by Buddhist monks – thought to be the only ones the Burmese military regime would not shoot too many of – the Russian Foreign Ministry says "Urgent steps are necessary to avert an escalation of tension". Vitaly Churkin, Russia's UN envoy says Myanmar (Burma) needs first a "return to security."  The questions 'whose security' and 'what kind of urgent steps' should be asked. Tragically, the fascist Myanmar military regime can be said to have interpreted words like these as a recommendation to ensure the demonstrators are silenced and suppressed as quickly as possible, because that is what they have done.

// Oct. 02, 2007 - 05:13 GMT

WASHINGTON, October 2 (RIA Novosti) – The U.S. Senate approved a defense bill of $648.8 billion Monday, which includes $225 million for the deployment of missile defense systems in Central Europe, 27% less than requested.

// Oct. 02, 2007 - 06:06 GMT

KIEV, October 2 (RIA Novosti) – The party led by Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych is leading the parliamentary polls in Ukraine, but reunited "orange" forces are hoping they will have enough votes to form a ruling majority.

// Oct. 02, 2007 - 06:29 GMT

MOSCOW, October 2 (RIA Novosti) – Credit institutions' balances on correspondent accounts with the Russian Central Bank totaled 567.4 billion rubles ($22.7 billion at the current exchange rates) at the beginning of the business day, down 1.5% from Monday, the CBR said Tuesday.

// Oct. 02, 2007 - 06:52 GMT

MOSCOW, October 2 (RIA Novosti) – Russia's investment index will open Tuesday at 832.52 points, up 0.67% following Monday evening's sessions on major world trading floors.

// Oct. 02, 2007 - 06:57 GMT

UNITED NATIONS, October 2 (RIA Novosti) – Moldovan Foreign Minister Andrei Stratan said Russian peacekeepers in the country's breakaway region of Transdnestr should be replaced with a "multinational civil mission with an international mandate."

// Oct. 02, 2007 - 07:43 GMT

MOSCOW/TOKYO, October 2 (RIA Novosti) – The president of North Korea has met his South Korean counterpart, who arrived in Pyongyang Tuesday for a three-day summit, the first time a South Korean leader has been in the Communist state since 2000.

// Oct. 02, 2007 - 08:06 GMT

BISHKEK, October 2 (RIA Novosti) – Kyrgyzstan's prime minister has flown to Russia for talks on grain purchases against the backdrop of a sharp decline in domestic grain reserves and a price hike.

// Oct. 02, 2007 - 08:14 GMT

BUENOS AIRES, October 2 (RIA Novosti) – Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has released his first CD of traditional Venezuelan and Mexican music, entitled Canciones de Siempre or Songs for all times, local media said Tuesday.

// Oct. 02, 2007 - 09:00 GMT

PETROPAVLOVSK-KAMCHATSKY, October 2 (RIA Novosti) – A court in Russia's Far East has sentenced the captain of a Cambodian trawler to a three-year suspended sentence for poaching, an aide to the region's prosecutor general said Tuesday.

// Oct. 02, 2007 - 09:18 GMT