News Russian Orthodox Church Ends Schism By Oleg Liakhovich The Russian Orthodox Church formally reunited with its New York-based breakaway arm, ending an 80-year schism that occurred after the 1917 Bolshevik revolution. At a ceremony at Moscow's Christ the Saviour Cathedral attended by thousands of worshippers, the domestic church head, Patriarch Alexy II, and leader of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Rus- sia (ROCOR), Metropolitan Lavr, sig­ned the reunification pact, titled "The Canonical Communion Act."

News Russia-EU Tensions Downplayed MOSCOW (AFP) - A top Russian official responsible for relations with the European Union has again played down tensions with Brussels ahead of a Russian-EU summit that begins Thursday, a report said.

News U.S.-Russian Relations Warm with Rice By Marianna Belenkaya Russia and the United States agreed Tuesday to "tone down rhetoric" in public debate and focus on real issues. This is the most anyone could expect from the Moscow talks between President Vladimir Putin and U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. Officially, Rice arrived in Moscow to discuss the agenda for an upcoming meeting between Putin and U.S. President George W. Bush at the G8 summit in Germany this June. But she also hoped to cover a broader range of issues since Russian-American relations have almost hit a breaking point recently, with the media talking about a new Cold War

News Russian Journalists Union to Be Evicted By Kate Roach The Russian Journalists Union (RJU) has voiced its protests over an order from the federal authorities to vacate their office in central Moscow in order to make room for the English-language Russia Today television station.

News Five Arrested in Siberian Bank Robbery, One Killed By Adam Klesczewski Police in Chita, a town in East Siberia, have detained five suspects in a recent attack on a Sberbank branch, Russia's largest state-controlled savings bank, local prosecutors said.

News Mayor Battles Squatters in Nature Preserves By Oleg Liakhovich The Moscow government is pledging to clean up the city's nature reserves of illegally built residences, according to Russian media. Last Saturday, Mayor Yuri Luzhkov and Oleg Mitvol, Deputy Head of the Russian Federal Service for the Oversight of Natural Resources, conducted an inspection of the suburban cottage community Rechnik, in western Moscow. There, officials announced plans to demolish 400 dachas, saying that their construction was never coordinated with city authorities, and that the cottages are situated in a nature conservation zone.

National Babies for Rent By Anna Arutunyan Life is a diagnosis," some Russians will point out to you after sufficient vodka. Inoculated with this local cliché, I shouldn't have been surprised when I learned that being a baby here is a medical condition that warrants constant professional supervision. Nature should definitely not take its course.

National German Fashion Editor Dies after Fall from Window By Adam Klesczewski A senior manager at a German fashion magazine Burda Moden died in Moscow early on Tuesday after falling from a window on the 10th floor. The body was discovered in the courtyard of his apartment building around six in the morning by a passerby, who notified the police.

National Two Siblings Abducted in St. Pete By Oleg Liakhovich Police in St. Peters-burg are investigating the abduction of two children from their father that occurred on Monday.

National Russia Sues Bank of New York MOSCOW (AFP) - Russia's Federal Customs Service filed a $22.5 billion lawsuit Thursday against the Bank of New York for money laundering, a lawyer for the service told AFP. "From 1996 to 1999, the Bank of New York took part in a money laundering scheme in which the Russian Federation suffered 22.5 billion dollars' worth of harm," lawyer Maxim Smal said after filing the suit at Moscow's arbitration court.

National Pavement Collapses Hit City By Adam Klesczewski A portion of a pavement in central Moscow collapsed on Thursday, Russian media reported. The collapse that occurred on Suschevsky Val left a gap approximately a meter and a half in diameter, witnesses say.

National Border-Crossing Extortion Racket Up Close and Personal By Vladimir Mishin Forecasts of a massive repatriation of Azerbaijani gastarbeiters, who, among others, have been prohibited from working at Russia's outdoor markets since April 1, proved to be greatly exaggerated. Guest workers from Azerbaijan continue to look for a better deal in Russia, leaving between 150,000 and 200,000 rubles a day at the Yalama-Derbent border crossing point alone.

World Sarkozy Names Fillon New PM By Emma Charlton PARIS - French President Nicolas Sarkozy Thursday named François Fillon, a loyal advisor and moderate right-winger, as prime minister to steer through his promised social and economic reforms.

World Two Koreas Stage Historic Rail Border Crossing MUNSAN STATION, South Korea (AFP) - Trains from North and South Korea crossed the heavily fortified border Thursday for the first time since the 1950-53 war, in what both sides called a milestone for reconciliation.

Comment Dialogue of Civilizations Gone Awry By Yevgeny Primakov These crucial events started when the ruling Islamist Justice and Development Party, led by Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, nominated Foreign Minister Abullah Gül for president. Under the Turkish Constitution, each president is elected by Parliament.