Russia

Russia announced an agreement with a group of former Soviet republics to form a military rapid-reaction force. President Dmitry Medvedev said the force, to which Russia would contribute an elite division and a brigade, should be able "to rebuff military aggression," fight terrorism, drug trafficking and organized crime, and respond to disasters. He said it "must be no weaker than similar forces" of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. The other nations involved in the Collective Security Treaty Organization are Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan.

Prime Minister Vladimir Putin's party racked up commanding leads in local elections that nongovernmental parties and independent observers said were awash in widespread voting violations. The United Russia party held huge advantages in all nine regional parliamentary elections as well as in thousands of municipal votes, according to preliminary results from the Central Elections Commission. Russia's only independent election monitoring organization, Golos, or Voice, alleged "mass violations" in several regions.

Six policemen were killed and two were injured in a bombing in Russia's North Caucasus region of Ingushetia, a local police source said. Ingushetia has been one of the most restive parts of Russia of late. Islamist fighters have been pursuing a separatist rebellion, mounting a series of low-level attacks.

Rows of missiles and tanks rumbled through Moscow's Red Square and dozens of combat jets streaked overhead during the Victory Day parade in the largest display of military might since the Soviet times. President Dmitry Medvedev warned that Russia was ready to respond to any challenge. The show included about 9,000 goose-stepping troops and more than 100 combat vehicles.

Peace talks aimed at healing rifts from the Russian-Georgian war broke down before they could start when the delegations from Russia and Georgia's two separatist provinces refused to take part, mediators said. "The co-chairs strongly regret the walkout by the Russian participants," the U.N., European Union and Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe said. It was supposed to be the first meeting since February between Georgia, Russia and Russia's allies from the breakaway Georgian regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia.

Russia and China urged North Korea to return to the negotiating table to discuss the fate of its rogue nuclear programs, an unusual appeal from two United Nations Security Council members who have resisted more punitive U.S. measures against the reclusive nation. The appeal came just hours after North Korea warned of a "thousandfold" military retaliation against the U.S. and its allies if provoked.

Detectives said they had reopened an investigation into the 2004 shooting death of a U.S. reporter. The move comes just days after officials drew criticism from the journalist's family for halting the probe. The family of Paul Klebnikov has called on President Obama, who is to visit Moscow next week, to press Russia to bring his killers to justice. Alexander Bastrykin, the head of the prosecutor-general's main investigative unit, said the investigation had been restarted. He gave no explanation.

Soft drink maker PepsiCo Inc. announced plans to boost its investment in Russia, continuing a trend of consumer companies seeking growth in emerging markets as their U.S. sales soften. With its largest bottler, Pepsi Bottling Group Inc., Purchase, N.Y.-based PepsiCo plans to invest an additional $1 billion in Russia over three years, taking the partnership's Russia stake above $4 billion. Pepsi in 1974 became the first Western consumer product to be made and sold in the Soviet Union.