Gunmen shot dead three policemen in Russia's southern region of Ingushetia in the restive Caucasus where authorities are fighting an Islamic insurgency, investigators said Friday.

Unidentified assailants shot dead two policemen in their car late Thursday in the regional capital Nazran.

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev on Thursday called the situation in Syria "dramatic" and expressed "enormous concern" over the deadly violence in the country.

"Unfortunately, people die there in large numbers. This arouses enormous concern from us," the Russian leader said in an interview given to Russian media in the southern resort Sochi.

A New York-based architectural firm was on Tuesday awarded a prestigious contract from billionaire Roman Abramovich to design an island in Russia's imperial capital Saint Petersburg.

The WORKac firm was announced the winner in a private tender organized by the Millhouse investment firm of the billionaire businessman that oversees the design of the New Holland project.

Libya's rebels said on Tuesday they launched a post-dawn attack on the western town of Zliten, punching through to the center and sparking fierce clashes with forces loyal to Moammar Gadhafi, as Russia said the fighting in Libya had reached a "dead end."

"The rebels advanced today inside Zliten to control the center. Now there is a vicious fight with Gadhafi's forces," said Colonel Ahmed Omar Bani, a military spokesman based in the rebel stronghold of Benghazi.

Belarus on Tuesday gave a cool reception to Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin's surprise announcement he favors a merger between the two countries into one state as in the days of the USSR.

The opposition raised the alarm over what it said were Russian dreams to essentially annex Belarus while sociologists said that support for re-unification with Russia was dwindling in the country year-by-year.

Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin on Monday said he was in favor of Russia and its western neighbor Belarus uniting into a single state, as in the days of the Soviet Union.

"This is possible and very desirable," said Putin, when asked at a pro-Kremlin youth camp on Russia's Lake Seliger if Russia and Belarus could merge into one entity.

The German industrial group Siemens said Monday it will form a joint venture focused on gas turbines with the Russian firm Power Machines, as Siemens moves away from nuclear energy activities.

A Siemens statement said it would own 65 percent of a joint entity, and would in exchange give back a stake of 25 percent plus one share that it owns in Power Machines to the firm's dominant shareholder, Highstat.

Russia urged Syria on Monday to immediately stop the use of force and repression against civilian protesters, in its strongest criticism yet of the government's crackdown on demonstrations.

The foreign ministry expressed "serious concern" after activists said Syrian security forces killed nearly 140 people Sunday in one of the deadliest days in more than four months of anti-regime protests.

The area covered by wildfires grew by 3,000 hectares to over 21,500 hectares over the past day as Russia battles to prevent a repeat of last year's deadly blazes, the emergencies ministry said Thursday.

Over the past day emergencies officials have managed to put out 148 fires covering the area of more than 4,000 hectares.

Unidentified gunmen on Thursday killed the spokesman of the leader of Russia's unrest-plagued Caucasus region of Dagestan, investigators said.

The attackers fired on Garun Kurbanov, the head of the press service of Dagestan leader Magomedsalam Magomedov just after 8:00 am (04:00 GMT), the Russian investigative committee said in a statement.