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Medvedev Gets Wish For .ðô Domain
MOSCOW — The world’s governing body for Internet domain names voted Friday to allow the use of non-Latin characters, clearing the way for the .ðô suffix and web sites named in Cyrillic. The first step in a long effort to make the Internet less reliant on the Latin alphabet allows “nations and territories to apply for Internet extensions … made up of characters from their national language,” the not-for-profit Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, or ICANN, said in a statement following a weeklong summit in Seoul, South Korea. President Dmitry Medvedev — who has his own video blog and claims to be conversant in Russian web slang, known as Olbanian — made acquiring Cyrillic web addresses an early priority of his administration. But commercial web site operators in Russia shrugged off the changes, saying they would provide more flexibility but were unlikely to attract masses of new users. “This is only the first step, but it is an incredibly big one and a historic move toward the internationalization of the Internet,” Rod Beckstrom, ICANN’s president and CEO, said in the statement. “We just made the Internet much more accessible to millions of people in regions such as Asia, the Middle East and Russia.” ICANN chairman Peter Dengate Thrush called it “the biggest technical change to the Internet since it was created four decades ago.” The U.S. Commerce Department opened the U.S.-based ICANN to broader international oversight on Sept. 30, after years of criticism that Washington had a stranglehold on Internet regulation. Russia will ... |
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| A blustery wind blows the leaves by the Clock Tower in Vyborg, 150 kilometers to the north of St. Petersburg. Forecasters are predicting snow toward the end of the week. |
Federal Migration Service Busts Anti-Racism Marchers
The March Against Hatred, an annual rally against neo-Nazi and racist violence held on Saturday, was raided by the Federal Migration Service. Officers started to single out participants of African descent and check their residency permits as the demonstration reached Ploshchad Sakharova, where the platform for the speakers had been installed. Ella Polyakova, the local head of the Soldiers’ Mothers organization climbed the platform to demand that immigration officers, who left a minibus marked “Immigration Control” parked on the square, stop harassing rally participants. “It appears that tolerance doesn’t exist in this city, while racism is flourishing,” she said. “As we were marching with our friends, whose skin happens to be a different color, grey-jacketed men tried ... |
Miliband Calls For Lugovoi’s Delivery
 MOSCOW — Britain’s visiting foreign secretary pressed Russia on Monday to turn over the main suspect in the 2006 killing of former Russian security agent Alexander Litvinenko, who died from radioactive polonium poisoning in a London hospital. Russia has refused to extradite ex-KGB officer-turned-businessman Andrei Lugovoi, saying its constitution forbids extraditing its citizens. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov used the same argument Monday in refusing the request from UK counterpart David Miliband, who said Britain would continue to demand justice in the “horrific murder.” “I suspect that our British counterparts are aware of the fact that a demand to change our constitution is not realistic,” Lavrov said, referring to the Russian law forbidding the extradition of Russian citizens. Lavrov said Russia was willing to prosecute any suspect if Britain provides the evidence. Miliband said Britain has already provided such evidence ... |
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UN Panel Criticizes Russia on Human Rights
GENEVA — Russia fails to protect journalists, activists, prison inmates and others at odds with authorities from a wide range of abuses, including torture and murder, the UN Human Rights Committee said Friday. The findings came in a report by an 18-member ... |
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H1N1 Virus Hits Aviation University
Nine cases of the H1N1 flu virus have been registered at the St. Petersburg State University of Civil Aviation, the Russian Consumer Watchdog told Interfax on Monday. "A hotbed of sickness is developing in the university," the spokesperon said. Two other cases of swine flu have been reported in local institutions of higher education. A fourth-year student at the Shtiglitz Academy of Applied and Industrial Arts fell ill on October 20 and was hospitalized two days later with H1N1, said Valentina Badanina, who manages the university clinic. A second-year student at Bonch-Bruevich University is also sick with the virus, Badanina confirmed. Both individuals' close contacts have been examined, but their institutions remain open to students. The ... |
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| A jogger unlikely to be accused of overdressing runs close to the Peter and Paul Fortress on Sunday, with the Neva River and St. Isaac's Cathedral in the background. |
Military Cargo Jet Crashes, 11 Killed
MOSCOW — A military cargo plane crashed Sunday shortly after taking off from a Sakha republic airport, killing all 11 crew members on board, emergency ... |
Court Rules in Former Ombudsman's Favor
Debate surrounding the dismissal of a controversial city ombudsman and member of United Russia party Igor Mikhailov is becoming more heated. The St. Petersburg Legislative Assembly, which removed controversial city ombudsman Igor Mikhailov from his post last week and promised that it would quickly elect a successor, has now been paralyzed by a decision of the Oktyabrsky District Court. The judge took Mikhailov’s side and ruled that the parliament cannot elect a new ombudsman until Mikhailov’s case is settled in court. Mikhailov has filed a suit against the city parliament claiming his dismissal was illegal. The hearings are scheduled to begin on Nov. 12. The ombudsman is also bringing libel charges against the deputies who removed Mikhailov ... |
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Pressure Grows as U.S. Moves to Overturn HIV Travel Ban
In a move that would leave Russia as one of the few countries with HIV travel restrictions, U.S. President Barack Obama said Friday that the United States would overturn a 22-year-old travel and immigration ban against people with HIV early next year. The order will be finalized Monday, Obama said, completing a process begun during the administration of President George W. Bush. The United States has been among a dozen countries that bar entry to travelers with visas or anyone seeking a green card based on their HIV status. The 11 other countries that ban HIV-positive travelers ... |
Gorbachev, Bush, Kohl Remember Cold War
BERLIN — Helmut Kohl, George Bush, and Mikhail Gorbachev hailed their excellent relations at a Berlin cabaret on Saturday, 20 years after the Cold War leaders watched over the Wall’s fall. The German ex-chancellor (1982-1998), US former president (1989-1993) and last Soviet leader (1985-1991) took the stage to share their memories of 1989 in front of a silvery curtain at a historic cabaret venue the Friedrichstadtpalast. “Mikhail Gorbachev and George Bush were Germany’s most important partners,” said Kohl, 79, who has been wheelchair-bound since fracturing his hip in February ... |
Art Director Brings Italian Flair to Che
 Che Bar&Gallery on Friday unveiled “Photo Book About Sweden,” an exhibit of contemporary Swedish photography. Presented in conjunction with the Swedish ... |
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Pirates Seize 23 Kaliningrad Sailors and Head for Somalia
MOSCOW — Somali pirates seized a Thai-flagged fishing trawler with 23 Kaliningrad sailors and were sailing it Sunday toward a pirate base off Somalia’s coast. Pirates on two skiffs captured the Thai Union 3 ship Thursday as it was fishing for tuna about ... |
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Carlsberg President on Government Beer Tax Plans
 MOSCOW — The Russian government is only making alcohol consumption worse by increasing taxes for brewers, according to Jorgen Buhl Rasmussen, president ... |
Russia, Poland Near Gas Deal
WARSAW — Poland and Russia are “much closer” to a final agreement on gas supplies after their respective state-controlled gas companies struck a deal on transit fees and increased supplies, a Polish official said. “This agreement brings us much closer to a final deal” than the countries were yesterday, when Economy Minister Waldemar Pawlak said he wasn’t certain whether an agreement would be reached, Maciej Kaliski, head of the oil and gas department at Poland’s Economy Ministry, said by phone Friday. Polskie Gornictwo Naftowe i Gazownictwo, Poland’s dominant gas company, ... |
Putin, Tymoshenko Stoke Gas Crisis Fears
 MOSCOW — Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said Friday that Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko blocked a money transfer for Russian gas and risked provoking ... |
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Interest Rates Cut Fails to Boost Lending
MOSCOW — Russian banks failed to raise lending to businesses and consumers even after the central bank cut interest rates in the hope of easing credit ... |
Economic Recovery in Doubt As Manufacturing Contracts
MOSCOW — Russian manufacturing contracted in October as companies cut jobs and failed to build up inventories, casting doubt on the strength of the recovery. VTB ... |
Barsky Tipped for Position of Acting CEO of TNK-BP
MOSCOW — TNK-BP Vice President Maxim Barsky may be named acting chief executive officer of Russia’s third-largest oil producer in a move to end a shareholder ... |
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Gambling Thrives Despite Ban Thanks to Loophole
 MOSCOW — Customers at a discount grocery store in northern Moscow have been gathering around the newest automated terminal there, a bright-green machine ... |
City Hall Signs Away Pulkovo
 On Friday, City Hall signed an agreement with VTB, Fraport and Copelozus, granting the consortium control of Pulkovo airport by May 2010. The agreement ... |
Putin Slashes State Support for Banks
MOSCOW — Russia will more than halve the budget for bank recapitalization next year as the industry turns around, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said. The government will earmark 100 billion rubles ($3.4 billion), down from a previously planned 250 billion rubles, with the difference going to the government’s “anti-crisis fund,” Putin said during a meeting at his residence outside Moscow on Friday. “The situation in the financial sphere is normalizing, improving,” Putin said, citing a central bank interest rate cut Thursday. “That’s why we will allocate the resources differently.” Bank Rossii reduced its key interest rates by half a percentage point, the eighth cut since April. The government expects the economy to contract 6.8 percent in the second half and 8.5 percent in 2009 on ... |
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Central Bank Warns Policies Unsustainable
RUSSIA — Russian banks are committing to funding costs so high they risk becoming unsustainable, a trend that constitutes a greater threat to the country’s financial industry than stalled credit flows, the central bank warned. Banks are offering returns ... |
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 Time to Take the Devil Out of NATO
They say the devil is in the details, but if you listen to leading Russian politicians and conservative journalists and analysts you would think the devil is in NATO. Despite the fact that NATO has radically changed its military structure and heavily ... |
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Smart Is the New Strong
I am sitting in the Akademiya Cafe reading a newspaper and sipping a cappuccino, which I would give the title of “Best in Moscow” if I still practiced the fattening profession of food critic. But my attention is drawn from the coffee by Kommersant’s headline: ... |
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Election Commission Declares Karzai Winner
 KABUL — Afghanistan’s election commission proclaimed President Hamid Karzai the victor of the country’s tumultuous ballot Monday, canceling a planned runoff ... |
Ford Posts Unexpected
Profit Of $1 Billion
DEARBORN, Mich. — Ford, the only Detroit automaker to dodge direct government aid and bankruptcy court, surprised investors with net income of nearly $1 billion in the third quarter and forecast a “solidly profitable” 2011. The automaker said Monday earnings were fueled by U.S. market share gains, cost cuts and the Cash for Clunkers program, which drew flocks of buyers to showrooms this summer. Ford’s shares rose 58 cents, or 8.3 percent, to $7.58 in pre-market trading. The latest results signal that Ford’s turnaround is on more solid ground. The company lost more than $14.6 ... |
Rival Somali Groups Fight Over British Couple
MOGADISHU, Somalia — Rival pirates and militia groups have fought for control over a British couple held hostage for more than a week, an Islamic militia commander and a local elder said Monday. The couple were not injured in the fighting. Meanwhile, an American-flagged cargo vessel came under gunfire from suspected Somali pirates but managed to escape, a U.S. Navy spokesman said. Elders sent local fighters to thwart an attempt by some of the pirates holding the couple to take them to an extremist Islamic group, said a commander of a rival moderate Islamic militia who gave ... |
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Tower of London Beafeaters Face Bullying Allegations
LONDON — If the charges are true, it’s time to add bullying to the litany of foul deeds committed at the notorious Tower of London, where three English queens were executed centuries ago. Three “Beefeaters,” or guards of the 11th-century royal fortress, ... |
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 Sochi: Olympian Dreams on the Shores of the Black Sea
Although often referred to as Russia’s Cote d’Azur, don’t come to Sochi expecting to find the French Riviera. You’ll soon realize your mistake when you land at the airport, which, despite preparations for the Olympics, remains something of an embarrassment. ... |
