News Moscow Dearest By Dietwald Claus The Worldwide Cost of Living Survey 2007 published by Mercer Human Resource Consulting has caused a bit of confusion around the world, just as it did last year. "Moscow ranks as the world's priciest city," writes The Associated Press. But is this true? What the report really said is that "Moscow is the world's most expensive city for expatriates," an important qualifier.

News Russia’s Famous Cat Theater Faces Closure By Oleg Liakhovich The Moscow Cat Theater, world-famous for its unique feline show, may be shot down, the theater's spokeswoman, Irina Vasilchikova, told RIA Novosti news agency.

News Moscow Rejects New UN Resolution on Kosovo By Dusan Stojanovic BELGRADE, Serbia - Serbia on Thursday welcomed Russia's rejection of a revised U.N. resolution that it said would only delay internationally supervised independence for its breakaway Kosovo province.

News Austria Frees Russian VIENNA (RIA Novosti) - Austrian authorities have released a Russian space agency official arrested on espionage charges last week and he will be soon handed over to Russian diplomats, Russia's Embassy in Vienna said Thursday.

News Communist Leader Declares His Presidential Ambitions MOSCOW (RIA Novosti) - The leader of Russia's Communist Party, Gennady Zyuganov, said he is ready to run for president in 2008, and his deputy said the party had given its backing.

News Killers of Congolese Student in Russia Convicted ST. PETERSBURG (RIA Novosti) - A court in St. Petersburg has sentenced four men convicted of murdering a Congolese student in September 2005 to between seven and 14 years in prison. Rolan Epossaca, a 29-year-old student at the St. Petersburg Forestry Academy, died in hospital after being violently beaten and stabbed several times.

News Armenia Worried by Plan for U.S. Shield YEREVAN (AFP) - Armenia voiced concern Wednesday that a Russian proposal to host part of a US missile defense system in neighbouring Azerbaijan could destabilize the volatile Caucasus region wedged between Russia and Iran.

News Russians Evacuated from Gaza Damascus/Erez Checkpoint (Israel), (RIA Novosti) - Sixty-nine Russians, seven Belarusians, and 91 Ukrainians were evacuated from the Gaza Strip via Israel Wednesday.

News Ukraine Could Lose 10 Mln Tons of Grain Due to Drought KIEV (RIA Novosti) - Ukraine's grain harvest could suffer a shortfall of up to 10 million metric tons this year due to the nationwide drought, the economics minister said Thursday.

News Ten Killed in Retirement Home Fire in West Siberia NOVOSIBIRSK (RIA Novosti) - At least 10 people were killed and four seriously injured in a fire that swept through a retirement home in a village in Western Siberia during the night, a local rescue services official said Thursday. The fire started on the third floor of a three-story brick building in a village in the Omsk Region at 12.28 a.m. local time. There were 327 people including 311 elderly residents in the building at the time, of which at least 300 were evacuated.

National Kyrgyzstan to Finance Summit by Selling Mansion BISHKEK (AFP) - A mansion used by ousted Kyrgyzstan president Askar Akayev to lodge state guests will be auctioned and the proceeds used to finance an international summit, an official said Wednesday.

National Five Arrested in Kazakh Kidnapping Probe ALMATY (AFP) - Kazakhstan has arrested five people in a kidnapping case involving a son-in-law of the president who is awaiting extradition from Austria, the foreign ministry said Monday.

National Kazakhstan Politics Heat Up ALMATY (AFP) - Kazakhstan's President Nursultan Nazarbayev dissolved parliament on Wednesday and announced new elections in August as part of a political shift aimed at boosting the oil-rich Central Asian country's democratic image.

National Russian Patriarch Agrees to PACE Visit MOSCOW (RIA Novosti) - Russian Patriarch Alexy II will attend a session of Europe's leading human rights body along with Pope Benedict XVI, but a historic meeting between the estranged church leaders is highly unlikely.

National Beating the Paper Pushers By Anna Arutunyan One of the setbacks of procreating in a welfare state - or in a state desperately trying to look like one - is that once you're a parent, you're in the jurisdiction of the bureaucrat soveticus. If you thought the INS or the IRS was bad, it's time to register your baby at the local ZAGS. And unfortunately, this chamber of paper-pushers is about as torturous as it sounds.