The latest: Israel Pins Hope on Russian Mediation in Middle East Standoff

03.07.2006
Israel Pins Hope on Russian Mediation in Middle East Standoff
Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni has arrived in Moscow on Monday for talks with her Russian counterpart, as tensions between Israel and the Palestinians soared over an Israeli soldier captured more than a week ago.

03.07.2006
Russia Will Bring Back Emigres to Solve Demographic Crisis
Officials in Russia say they hope to attract tens of thousands of Russians living abroad through a state program encouraging voluntary resettlement. President Vladimir Putin issued a decree launching the program in June. It aims to ease Russia’s demographic crisis, caused by low birth rates and high mortality.

03.07.2006
St. Petersburg Group Promotes Third Term for Russia’s Putin
A St. Petersburg-based group has launched collection of signatures in support of law changes that would allow Vladimir Putin to run for presidency again. They fear that if he steps down in 2008 the country will plunge into abyss of instability.

03.07.2006
Abramovich Buys Pope’s Number Plate for $460,000
Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich has paid 285,000 pounds for a number plate originally made for Pope John Paul II.

03.07.2006
Ukraine Faces More Talks to Form Assembly, Cabinet
Ukraine, still lacking a government and working parliament three months after an election, faces tough bargaining as parties launch talks to overturn a battered international image before the harvest and onset of winter. President Viktor Yushchenko has urged his rivals and allies to get the blocked parliament working and a government put in place.

03.07.2006
Russians Want to Know Putin’s Views on Sex, Drugs and Stomach-Kissing
What Russians really want to ask their leader is when he lost his virginity, when he will legalize marijuana and when a giant fictional octopus sleeping at the bottom of the ocean will awaken. They also want to know what made Putin kiss a boy on the stomach last week.

03.07.2006
Russia Sends Nuclear Icebreaker to Rescue U.S. Travelers Conquering North Pole
The Russian nuclear icebreaker Yamal is to join a rescue operation in the North Pole. The Yamal crew will save two members of an American expedition who planned to conquer the North Pole in an unprecedented summer-time expedition, sources in the Murmansk Sea Shipping Company said.

03.07.2006
Russian Researchers Develop Tomato Vaccine Against HIV and Hepatitis
Genetically modified tomatoes containing edible vaccine are to be used to challenge two of the world’s most lethal viruses. The project proposed by a team of Russian scientists from a Siberian research center may help create affordable vaccines for HIV and the hepatitis B virus.

03.07.2006
2 Killed as Flood Breaks Dam in Ukraine
Two women have been found dead in a village after heavy rains led to a dam breaking in Crimea in southern Ukraine.

03.07.2006
U.S. Congressmen Ask Putin to Defend Russian Gays and Lesbians
U.S. congress members have appealed to Russian president Vladimir Putin, asking him to defend the rights of gays and lesbians in his country.

03.07.2006
Two Russian Su-30 Jets Arrive in Venezuela
Two Russian-made Su-30 jets arrived in Venezuela on Sunday and Caracas plans to purchase 24 of the fighter jets from Moscow this year, the military announced. The two Russian fighter jets would make their first public appearance during a military parade set for Wednesday to mark Venezuela’s independence from the Spanish colonial rule.

03.07.2006
Georgian OSCE Observer Held in Italy on Suspicion of Drug Trafficking
Italy has accused a Georgian national working for the OSCE of smuggling 20 kilos of heroin into Italy from Albania.

03.07.2006
Tajikistan Removes Soviet-era Mountain Names From Pamirs Map
Authorities in the post-Soviet Tajikistan have decreed on renaming several peaks in the Pamirs Mountains seeking to remove Soviet-era names from the map of the Roof of the World.

03.07.2006
War-displaced Japanese Returns Home After 67 Years in Russia
A 79-year-old Japanese man who was left behind at the end of World War II and recently surfaced in Russia returned to his homeland Sunday for the first time in 67 years to be reunited with his relatives. Yoshiteru Nakagawa went missing in the eastern Russian island of Sakhalin at the end of the war.

03.07.2006
Russia’s Putin Calls for Opposition Groups to Freely Express Views
President Vladimir Putin said Saturday that opposition groups should have more platforms for expressing their views.