Russia

Washington broke off all negotiations with Moscow nine days ago amid extreme tension over failure to secure a truce.

But Russia's Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov will now meet his US counterpart John Kerry and other key regional powers in Switzerland on Saturday.

The announcement comes after two days of renewed air strikes on Aleppo, killing at least 75 people.

The US State Department said Mr Kerry would discuss a "multilateral approach" to ending the crisis, "including a sustained cessation of violence and the resumption of humanitarian aid deliveries."

The response will be "proportional," press secretary Josh Earnest said, without elaborating. He said the actions would likely not be announced ahead of time and could never be made public.

Speaking with reporters on Air Force One, Earnest said a "range" of responses were on the table.

Last Friday's announcement was the first time the government has publicly blamed another country for hacking with the goal of influencing a US election.

President Vladimir Putin also said he and Recep Tayyip Erdogan had agreed on the need for aid to get to the northern Syrian city of Aleppo.

The two countries have signed a deal to construct two pipelines to send Russian gas under the Black Sea to Turkey.

Ties were strained after Turkey downed a Russian military jet last year.

But speaking at a joint news conference with Mr Putin, Mr Erdogan said he was confident that the normalisation of relations would take place rapidly.

Nikolai Pankov announced a review of the decision to close the two bases more than a decade ago.

The two served as pivots of Soviet military power during the Cold War.

It comes amid growing tensions between the US and Russia, and as Russia's parliament approved a longer term military presence at a Syrian airbase.

Mr Pankov told the Russian parliament on Friday they were "dealing with the issue" of the two bases, Russian news agencies reported.

He declined to go into detail.

"Russia, and the regime, owe the world more than an explanation about why they keep hitting hospitals and medical facilities and children," he said.

"These are acts that beg for an appropriate investigation of war crimes."

Moscow has repeatedly denied attacking civilians, and said it targets terrorist groups in Syria.

Mr Kerry, however, said Russian and Syrian government attacks on hospitals were "beyond the accidental" and part of a deliberate strategy in war-torn Syria.

Recent hacked emails are "consistent with the methods and motivation of Russia-directed efforts", the Department of Homeland Security said.

Data revealing discussions within the Democratic Party was hacked earlier this year.

Some states reported "probing" attempts made on "election-related" systems.

However, officials said those attempts could not be directly linked to the Russian government.

Russian officials told Interfax news agency the claims it was involved in the cyber attacks were "nonsense".

Defence ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov said the purpose of the system was to guarantee the security of the base from the air.

The move comes amid growing tension with the West. On Monday, the US halted talks with Russia on trying to co-ordinate air strikes against jihadists.

A ceasefire brokered by Washington and Moscow collapsed last month.

"Let me remind you that the S-300 is a purely defensive system and poses no threat to anyone," Maj-Gen Konashenkov said.

"It is unclear why the deployment of the S-300 caused such alarm among our Western partners."

But there has been sharp criticism of the ban proposed by senator Elena Mizulina and backed by the government.

Some warn that a ban will mean more dead babies left in woods or at rubbish dumps. Russia has about 20 of the boxes, where a mother can anonymously leave a baby at a maternity unit.

A UN committee has condemned the boxes.

The various American companies which dominated the tech world are losing their acceptance is Asian countries. Google is blocked in China. Xiaomi is ruling the smartphone market of developing nations. Now, Russia, the biggest country in the world, is planning to ditch Microsoft software for locally crafted alternatives.

At a news conference Monday, the head of Russian air and Space forces, Andrei Koban, said that analysis of the data refuted the widely-accepted conclusion that the aircraft was shot down by a BUK missile from within territory held by Russian-backed rebels.

"The fact that Ukrainian authorities have still not published the information they have, we can concluded that if it was a BUK that was launched at the (Malaysian Airlines flight), this must have been launched from a location with the Ukrainian forces," Koban said.