A group of Russian lawmakers arrived in Damascus Saturday to meet Moscow ally President Bashar Assad and opposition figures in a bid to broker talks aimed at ending violence in the country, news agencies reported.

"Russia cares about the fate of the Syrian people. That's why we want to find a way to stop a negative scenario developing," Russia's Interfax quoted Ilyas Uumakhanov, vice president of the Russian upper house, as saying.

Foreign Minister Adnan Mansour stressed on Saturday that Lebanon, which is the president of the U.N. Security Council for the month of September, will not support any resolution that condemns the Syrian regime in its violent crackdown on protestors.

“Even Russia rejects a resolution against Syria in the form that the West wants,” he told Voice of Mada radio station.

Top Russian and U.S. diplomats have discussed their differing positions surrounding a Palestinian bid for recognition as a state at the United Nations, the foreign ministry said on Saturday.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Friday phoned her Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov to discuss "certain issues of the Middle East situation," including a Palestinian bid to win U.N. statehood, the Russian foreign ministry said in a statement.

Russia warned on Wednesday that "terrorist organizations" may arise in Syria should President Bashar al-Assad's regime fall under pressure from ongoing street protests.

"If the Syrian government is unable to hold on to power, there is a high probability that radicals and representatives of terrorist organizations will become entrenched," Interfax quoted a top foreign ministry official as saying.

The U.S. space agency is offering schools and universities a special deal on astronaut cuisine and heat tiles from the now extinct space shuttles, just over 20 dollars a pack, NASA said Monday.

"The lightweight tiles protected the shuttles from extreme temperatures when the orbiters re-entered the Earth's atmosphere," NASA said in a statement.

Pro-democracy activists in Syria have called for a "day of anger" against Russia on Tuesday to protest Moscow's backing for President Bashar al-Assad, who for more than six months has tried to stifle an anti-regime uprising.

"Do not support the killers. Do not kill the Syrians with your position" in favor of the regime, the activists urged Russia in a posting on The Syrian Revolution 2011, a Facebook page that has been the engine for anti-Assad revolt.

Russia said Monday it would vote in favor of a controversial Palestinian bid to win U.N. statehood despite strong resistance to the idea from both Israel and the United States.

Russia's ambassador to the world governing body said Moscow was not pushing the Palestinians to submit their candidacy at the United Nations but would back the proposal if it came up for a vote.

Some 1,400 people, including 700 army and security officials, have been killed in the violence in Syria, a top aide to President Bashar Assad said Monday.

"There are 700 casualties among the army and the police, and 700 among the rebels," Assad's media adviser Bouthaina Shaaban said on a visit to Moscow, dismissing a toll of 2,600 people reported earlier by the U.N. human rights chief Navi Pillay.

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev on Monday defended the Syrian regime against sanctions for its crackdown on protesters and warned British Prime Minister David Cameron of the dangers of such a move.

Cameron met Medvedev for talks focusing on Syria and bilateral disputes as global frustration mounted with Russia's continued support of its ally despite President Bashar al-Assad's months-long repression of nationwide protests.

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev on Sunday ordered his government Sunday to shut down unreliable airlines after 43 people were killed in a chartered plane crash that wiped out a top hockey team.

The decision came as the nation mourned the latest in a string of deadly air accidents that earlier saw Medvedev request the removal from operations of Russia's older Soviet-era jets.