Russia, United States | featured news

Serena Williams turns her highly-anticipated match up with Russia's Maria Sharapova into a clinic on Centre Court. After Williams dominates 6-0, 6-1 in the final, she dances in celebration. Serena WIlliams became only the second woman to complete a career Golden Slam, winning the most lopsided women's final in Olympic history Saturday by beating Maria Sharapova 6-0, 6-1. The victory completed a remarkable run of domination by the No. 4-seeded Williams, who lost only 17 games in six matches en route to her first singles gold medal. She went 13-0 this summer at the All England Club, where she won her fifth Wimbledon title a month ago.

The Americans lived up to their considerable hype and then some Tuesday night, routing silver medalist Russia and everybody else on their way to their first Olympic title in women's gymnastics since 1996. Their score of 183.596 was a whopping five points ahead of Russia and made their final event, floor exercise, more like a coronation. Romania won the bronze.

The most recent statistics according to the IE6 Countdown shows that the world as a whole is at 10.9% usage on IE6. The United States, Turkey, Canada, Brazil, Russia, Australia, New Zealand and the UK are at the top (bottom) of the list with under 3% of overall browsers running as IE6. Norway leads everyone at 0.4% and their neighbors in Finland are at 0.8%.

The head of Russia's deep cover U.S. spying operations has betrayed the network and defected, a Russian paper said on Thursday, potentially giving the West one of its biggest intelligence coups since the end of the Cold War.

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.

One of the suspects in an alleged Russian spy ring has admitted that he worked for Russia's intelligence service, federal prosecutors say in court documents.

The United States, Russia, Britain, France and China on Wednesday voiced support for making the Middle East a nuclear-arms-free zone, which would mean Israel would have to scrap any atomic bombs it has.

Both President Obama and Russian leader Dmitry Medvedev want Iran to relinquish potential nuclear explosive material in return for fuel. A White House official says the two leaders discussed possible sanctions if Iran refuses to comply.

U.S. President Barack Obama said he and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev agreed on Wednesday that serious additional sanctions must be considered if Iran does not respond to proposals to end a nuclear standoff.

Russia and the United States will pursue a new deal to cut nuclear warheads, presidents Dmitry Medvedev and Barack Obama said on Wednesday, making good on a pledge to rebuild relations from a post-Cold War low.