TODAY: Talks with North Korean leader could lead to suspended nuclear programme, debt repayments; Medvedev says no to compromise trade deal with Ukraine, calls for end to violence in Libya, opposes sanctions on Syria leader; Politkovskaya suspect was secret witness; supply spaceship crashes; nationalist protests, sexual health billboards, South Ossetia.

According to the Kremlin, North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il says he is ready to discuss suspension of his country’s nuclear weapons programme if international six-party talks can be resumed.  North Korea owes Russia $11 billion in debt, dating from before the collapse of the Soviet Union; new attempts by the two leaders to agree on debt restructuring constitute ‘a breakthrough’.  President Dmitry Medvedev has ruled out a compromise deal with Ukraine that would allow it to pursue free trade pacts with the E.U. as well as with the Russia-led Customs Union, effectively forcing Ukraine to choose either itself or Europe.  Medvedev calls on Libyan rebels to sit down for talks with Muammar Gaddafi, as U.S. Senator John McCain and Nina Khrushcheva (separately) insist that Russia, too, needs democracy.  Russia continues to oppose sanctions against the Syrian President.