Venezuela could sign over $5 billion worth of contracts for Russian arms and military equipment, Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said on Monday.

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev met on Monday with his Ukrainian counterpart Viktor Yanukovych, who is on a private visit to Moscow, for the second time in five weeks.

At least 13 people were injured in a series of two explosions in Russia's volatile southern province of Ingushetia, a local investigative committee spokesman said.

Uzbekistan has made progress in human rights, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said during his official visit to Tashkent on Monday.

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has signed a law on ratifying treaties with the former Georgian republics of South Ossetia and Abkhazia on joint border protection, the Kremlin press office said on Monday.

Under the deals, South Ossetia and Abkhazia delegate to Russia the authority to secure their borders with Georgia.

Russia recognized the independence of the former Georgian republics in August 2008 after repelling Georgia's assault on South Ossetia in a five-day war. Only Nicaragua, Venezuela and the tiny Pacific island state of Nauru have followed suit.

The deals stipulate cooperation with Russia in state border protection, the struggle against terrorism, the smuggling of arms, ammunition, explosives and poisonous substances, radioactive materials, illegal movement of narcotic drugs, psychotropic substances and their precursors across the border.

The deals say that Russia will protect the borders of South Ossetia and Abkhazia until the republics build their own border guard services.

The three countries have said the accords are not aimed against any other country.

RIA Novosti

A gay parade has been planned for the Belarusian capital of Minsk on May 15, a spokesman for the event's organizing committee said on Monday.

Russian servicemen will participate in the May 9 Victory Day parade in the Ukrainian capital, Kiev, a top Russian military official said on Monday.

A resident of Dagestan has claimed that he recognizes one of the women who carried out the terrorist attacks on the Moscow metro as his daughter Mariam Sharipova, the Moscow weekly Novaya Gazeta reported.

Two police officers were killed and another two injured in a series of two explosions, at least one of them caused by a suicide bomber, in Russia's volatile southern province of Ingushetia, local police said on Monday.

Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych will on Monday pay an unofficial visit to Moscow, a deputy head of the presidential administration said.

United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon will pay a visit to Tajikistan on April 5-6 as part of his tour of Central Asia, the country's Foreign Ministry said Monday.