At least 36 dead as fire rages through Russian psychiatric hospital
(Photo: Pavel Sergeyev / AP)
At least 36 people were feared dead after a fire raged through an isolated psychiatric hospital north of Moscow on Friday, killing some patients in their beds and others who were trapped by barred windows.
Source: nbcnews.to
Topless protesters give Russia’s Putin an eyeful
(Photo: Jochen Luebke / EPA)
Russian President Vladimir Putin laughed off a protest against him by topless women in Germany on Monday, joking that he liked what he had seen while sharply rebuffing German criticism of his human rights record.
Source: nbcnews.to
Sochi Winter Olympics organizers store snow, just in case
(Photo: Shaun Botterill / Getty)
SOCHI, Russia - While Moscow digs itself out of a huge snow storm that hit the Russian capital in the last few days, organizers of the Winter Olympics are worried a lack of white powder could become a problem next February.
Source: nbcnews.to
Newly crowned Miss Russia attacks Pussy Riot sentence
(Photo: Maxim Shemetov / Reuters)
MOSCOW — Miss Russia 2013 said on Saturday that the sentencing of punk rockers Pussy Riot to two years in prison for their protest performance in a Moscow cathedral was too harsh a punishment.
Almost $50 billion left Russia illegally in 2012, bank chief says
(Photo: Grigory Dukor / Reuters)
MOSCOW - Nearly $50 billion was transferred out of Russia illegally in 2012 and more than half this sum may have been controlled by a single group of people, the country’s central bank said on Wednesday.
Source: worldnews.nbcnews.com
Russia meterorite fragments worth 40 times more than gold
(Photo: Alexander Khlopotov / Urals Federal University Press Service via AP)
MOSCOW — A meteor that exploded over Russia’s Ural Mountains and sent fireballs blazing to Earth has set off a rush to find fragments of the space rock which hunters hope could fetch thousands of dollars apiece.
Source: science.nbcnews.com
Russian nuclear bombers intercepted near Guam
U.S. military officials tell NBC News that two Russian bombers, capable of carrying nuclear cruise missiles, circled the U.S. island of Guam in the Western Pacific this week. U.S. Air Force F-15 jets scrambled from Andersen Air Force Base on Guam to intercept the bombers.
Source: nbcnews.com
Meteor warning system in the works, but far from ready
(Photo: Yekaterina Pustynnikova / AP)
There aren’t yet any advance warning systems that could give Earthlings a heads-up before an untracked space rock hits. But a telescope project in Hawaii aims to change that, and potentially provide a chance for those in threatened areas to evacuate.
Source: science.nbcnews.com
Hundreds injured as meteor fireball screams across the sky in Russia
(Photo: Yekaterina Pustynnikova / Chelyabinsk.ru via AP)
A huge meteorite flared through the skies over Russia’s Chelyabinsk region early Friday, triggering a powerful shock wave that injured hundreds of people.
Source: cosmiclog.nbcnews.com
Jet rolls off Moscow runway, splits apart
(Photo: Alexander Usoltsev / AP)
MOSCOW — A Russian airliner split into pieces after it slid off the runway and crashed onto a highway outside Moscow on Saturday, killing at least four of the 12 crew on board and leaving smoking chunks of fuselage on the icy road.
Source: worldnews.nbcnews.com
US-Russian crew picked for one-year space station flight
(Photo: NASA / Bill Ingalls)
A veteran NASA space commander and Russian cosmonaut have signed on for the ultimate space voyage: a yearlong trip on the International Space Station.
American astronaut Scott Kelly and Russian cosmonaut Mikhail Kornienko will launch on the one-year space station flight in spring 2015 and return to Earth in spring 2016, NASA officials announced Monday. They will begin their mission training in early 2013.
Source: MSNBC
Mysterious elk-shaped structure discovered in Russia
(Photo: Courtesy Google Earth)
A huge geoglyph in the shape of an elk or deer discovered in Russia may predate Peru’s famous Nazca Lines by thousands of years.
The animal-shaped stone structure, located near Lake Zjuratkul in the Ural Mountains, north of Kazakhstan, has an elongated muzzle, four legs and two antlers. A historical Google Earth satellite image from 2007 shows what may be a tail, but this is less clear in more recent imagery.
Source: MSNBC
Moscow police nab Greenpeace polar bear protesters
(Photo: Misha Japaridze / AP)
The Associated Press reports — Put your paws in the air.
Moscow police have arrested 10 environmental activists, including four dressed in polar bear costumes, who were protesting outside the main office of Gazprom, the Russian oil and natural gas giant.
Source: photoblog.nbcnews.com
Russian court sentences Pussy Riot rockers to two years of jail each after finding them guilty of hooliganism
(Photo: Natalia Kolesnikova / AFP - Getty Images)
MOSCOW — A Russian judge on Friday found three members of a feminist punk band guilty of “hooliganism motivated by religious hatred” and sentenced them each to two years in prison after they staged an anti-Kremlin protest in a church.
Source: worldnews.nbcnews.com
NYT: American gun lovers turn to Russian AK-47s
(Photo: Oleg Nikishin / The New York Times)
IZHEVSK, Russia — The nickname of this town, home of the factory that makes Kalashnikov rifles, is the “Armory of Russia.” Over the years, it has armed a good number of other countries, too, as the lathes and presses of the Izhevsk Machine Works clanged around the clock to forge AK-47s and similar guns for insurgents and armies around the world.
But these days, many of Izhevsk’s weapons are headed somewhere else: the United States.
Source: MSNBC
