Russia | featured news

Chauncey Billups made the promise. Kevin Durant made sure it was kept. And by beating Russia on Thursday, the Americans brought a little joy to one of the players who will never forget what happened against the Soviets exactly 38 years earlier.

Export growth is propelled by higher prices for many products, including wheat, whose prices have skyrocketed as drought and heat struck Russia.

Russia, which helped build the plant, emphasized that it could not be used for nonpeaceful purposes, though the United States had urged a delay in its opening.

Russian meteorologists said on Wednesday Moscow's deadly heat wave was ending after two months of searing weather which took a high human and economic toll.

Russia said it will start loading a nuclear reactor in Iran with fuel next week, moving the project closer to being complete.

Deaths in Moscow have doubled and are now averaging 700 people a day amid a sweltering heat wave and poisonous smog from wildfires, a top Russian health official said Monday.

As acres burn and the damage mounts from a nationwide eruption of wildfires, the government is being tested at all levels and, quite often, found wanting.

Russian special forces detained a man on Thursday who had taken control of an aircraft on a domestic flight to Moscow's Domodedovo airport, ITAR-TASS news agency cited a police spokesman as saying.

The “12th man” taken into custody by U.S. officials in the Russian spy probe worked for Microsoft Corp., a spokesman for the company confirmed Wednesday.

The speed of the exchange has some wondering what was behind the deal. The sun was up Friday when two airplanes, one coming in from the West, the other from the East, touched ground and circled toward each other on the tarmac of Vienna International Airport.