RUSSIA

* Former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev has said that the Obama administration in the United States needs far-reaching 'perestroika' reforms to overcome the financial crisis and restore balance in the world

* Russia will resume imports of Polish vegetables on November 10, ending an embargo imposed three years ago over quality concerns, the Russian agricultural regulator said

* Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said on Friday that Russia was ready to provide economic and political assistance to help Lebanon overcome long-running factional violence

* Six people, including two children aged 5 and 6, were killed in a car crash in Russia's North Caucasus republic of North Ossetia on Friday, a source in local law enforcement agencies said

* Council of Europe Secretary General Terry Davis will pay a one-day visit to Moscow on November 12 to discuss the aftermath of the August Georgia-Russia conflict, his spokesman said on Friday

* A total of 50 people on Russia's wanted list have been extradited to Russia since the start of the year, the country's Interpol Bureau said in a statement on Friday

* More than 150,000 people are expected to take part in street celebrations of the Bolshevik Revolution on Friday in cities throughout Russia, the Interior Ministry said

* At least five missile brigades deployed on Russia's western border will be equipped with new Iskander-M short-range missile systems by 2015, a Defense Ministry source said on Friday

* Renault will start assembling its new Sandero hatchback at its Avtoframos plant in Moscow in 2010, a spokesman for the French carmaker said on Friday

* The State Duma adopted in the first reading on Friday a draft law under which gifts to government officials worth more than 5,000 rubles ($186) would be confiscated

* A parade took place on Moscow's Red Square on Friday to commemorate the legendary military parade of 1941 and in honor of the country's World War II effort

* The head of the Investigation Committee of the Russian Prosecutor General's Office said Friday there were no "Georgian footprints" in Thursday's terrorist attack in North Ossetia

* A painting by the Russian avant-garde artist Wassily Kandinsky (1866-1944) has been sold for $16.8 million at Christie's in New York, the auction house said on Friday

* A court in St. Petersburg sentenced a former Russian boxer to two and a half years in prison on Friday for the murder of his stepson's alleged rapist

* Zenit St. Petersburg's Dutch trainer, Dick Advocaat, has signed a one-year extension to his contract, the club announced on Friday

* Moscow has received new U.S. proposals aimed at easing Russia's concerns over a planned European missile shield and replacing a strategic arms reduction treaty, a Foreign Ministry official said on Friday

* Five people have been killed in a car crash in the village of Kazachinskoe in East Siberia's Krasnoyarsk Territory, a local police source said on Friday

* The investigation committee of the Russian General Prosecutor's Office denied on Friday that Russia's top court had ruled illegal the arrest of Lt. Gen. Alexander Bulbov, a senior drug control official

* Russia's space agency, Roscosmos, has agreed to pay 100,000 rubles (about $4,000) in compensation to a villager in southwest Siberia after a rocket fragment fell on his land, the local administration said on Friday

* The death toll in Thursday's blast at a bus stop in the capital of Russia's North Caucasus republic of North Ossetia has risen to 12, including a female suicide bomber, a local police source said on Friday

WORLD

* The Abkhaz prime minister announced on Friday that the separatist republic was planning to reinforce its border with Georgia, saying that the current situation was similar to the period leading up to the August attack on South Ossetia

* Lithuania's president said on Friday that EU-Russia talks on a new strategic partnership deal cannot resume as Russia has failed to fulfill its obligations under an EU-brokered peace deal with Georgia

* Nine people died and 17 were injured on Friday in a collision between a bus and a truck in Kazakhstan, the emergencies ministry said

* A task force from Russia's Northern Fleet led by the Pyotr Veliky missile cruiser will visit Venezuela on November 24-30, a spokesman for the Venezuelan Defense Ministry announced Friday

* The Polish government has submitted a number of missile-defense agreements with the United States to parliament for ratification, the Polish foreign minister said on Friday

* Russia will open military bases in two Georgian breakaway republics, Abkhazia and South Ossetia, in 2009, a source in the Russian Defense Ministry said Friday

* The announcement by President Dmitry Medvedev of Russia's plans to deploy Iskander missile systems near Poland harms European security, France said on Friday in its role as EU president

* A senior North Korean diplomat said the country is ready for dialogue with the U.S., in Pyongyang's first official reaction to the election of Barack Obama

* Several thousand Georgian opposition activists began a rally near the country's parliament on Friday to commemorate the break up of last year's protests against President Mikheil Saakashvili

* Lithuania has reiterated its opposition to the resumption of talks on a new strategic partnership deal with Russia ahead of an EU ministerial meeting, Belgian media reported on Friday

* Moscow welcomed on Friday a U.S. court ruling that a former Russian UN official, sentenced to four years and three months in prison for money laundering, will serve out his jail term in Russia

* A U.S. warship left Ukraine's Black Sea port of Sevastopol on Friday morning after a short stay

* Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip have fired at least three rockets at southern Israel after the third day of renewed hostilities threaten a fragile five-month truce, the Israeli military said on Friday

* A Russian floating platform will start to drill exploratory test wells for natural gas in the Gulf of Venezuela on Friday, a Gazprom official said

* Venezuela will continue to buy modern weaponry from Russia and other "friendly countries" in the future to boost its defense capability, a senior military official said

* Russia's two representatives in the UEFA Cup enjoyed mixed fortunes on Thursday evening, with Spartak Moscow losing at home to Italy's Udinese while CSKA stormed to a 3-1 win over Feyenoord in the Netherlands

BUSINESS

* While most sectors of Russia's economy have been hard hit by the global credit crunch, the jewelry business has seen a new boom, as consumers turn to gold and gemstones as safe investment options

* Global car making giant General Motors opened an automobile factory in St. Petersburg on Friday, the press service of the northwest Russian city's economic development committee said

* Russian-Indian trade increased 41.6% year-on-year in the first nine months of 2008 to $3.8 billion, a Russian economics ministry spokesperson said on Friday

* Rail monopoly Russian Railways (RZD) said on Friday its net profit calculated to Russian Accounting Standards was down 24.9%, year-on-year, in the first nine months of 2008, to 31.93 billion rubles ($1.18 billion)

* LUKoil and diamond giant De Beers will register a diamond producing JV in north Russia's Arkhangelsk Region later this year, the head of Russia's largest independent oil producer said on Friday

* LUKoil is prepared to slash its investment program from $8 billion to $4 billion if the price of oil falls to $45 per barrel, the president of Russia's largest independent crude producer said on Friday