* Russian Defense Minister and Deputy Prime Minister Sergei Ivanov said a UN resolution on North Korea should not even "hint on" military action against Pyongyang over the claimed nuclear test there
* Georgia is re-orienting its mail routes to Ukraine after Russia suspended mail links with its former Soviet ally, the Novosti Georgia agency said, referring to Georgia Post Office Co
* Russia and NATO will launch a joint theater missile defense exercise next week, Russia's Defense Ministry said
* Moscow sent a train with humanitarian aid to Georgia's breakaway republic of South Ossetia
* Russia's tennis players Anna Chakvetadze and Nadezhda Petrova defeated Nicole Vaidisova from the Czech Republic and Russia's Yelena Dementyeva respectively in the semifinals of the Kremlin Cup; will meet in the final match
* Russia's Nikolai Davydenko, seeded first at the Kremlin Cup in Moscow, defeated France's Fabrice Santoro (7) 6-4, 6-1
