news of world - Russia welcomes improved ties with US

MOSCOW: Russian President Dmitry Medvedev sounds optimistic about improved relations after Nixon's secretary of State and other former high-ranking officials pay an informal visit. The octogenarian Republican is an improbable go-between to push the diplomatic line of a young Democratic president. But here he was in Moscow on Friday: Henry Kissinger, the architect of Cold War detente with the Soviet Union, meeting informally with Russian President