MOSCOW, May 16 (RIA Novosti) - The official death toll following Myanmar's Cyclone Nargis, which hit the Southeast Asian country two weeks ago, has risen to 77,738, and 56,000 are missing, national television reported on Friday. The cyclone, which has

MOSCOW, May 16 (RIA Novosti) - A committee defending the rights of sexual minorities has sent a letter to President Dmitry Medvedev asking him to allow a gay pride parade in central Moscow, Ekho Moskvy radio said Friday. The Alexander

TALLINN, May 16 (RIA Novosti) - A brown bear was caught by an Estonian environmental inspector in the Narva River swimming toward the Russian border, the Eesti Paevaleht daily reported on Friday. The bear had swum almost 100 meters until

QUEBEC CITY, May 17 (RIA Novosti) - Russia's national ice-hockey side has beaten Finland 4-0 in the semifinals of the 2008 IIHF World Championship in Canada, and will now face the hosts in the final on May 18. Russia avenged

MOSCOW, May 16 (RIA Novosti) - Georgia will continue to block Russia's entry to the World Trade Organization until Moscow withdraws its support for the breakaway Georgian region of Abkhazia, the country's reintegration minister said on Friday. Tensions between Moscow

MOSCOW, May 16 (RIA Novosti) - Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has urged countries set to take part in a Mideast peace conference in Moscow to agree on a timetable for the meeting as soon as possible. Russia, a member

KABUL, May 17 (RIA Novosti) - Pakistan's envoy to Afghanistan, kidnapped more than three months ago by militants believed to belong to the radical Islamic Taliban movement, has been freed, a Pakistani embassy official said on Saturday. "I can't give

MOSCOW. (RIA Novosti foreign news commentator Ivan Zakharchenko) -Soccer has turned from a sport into an instrument that may take Russian-British relations out of the deadlock, into which they were driven by the mysterious death of former FSB agent Alexander

S. sanctions could face a number of problems but will not be seriously affected, the country's first deputy prime minister said * The Georgian Interior Ministry has dismissed as a 'provocation' Russian reports that a Georgian intelligence service agent had

TEHRAN, May 16 (RIA Novosti) - Three Iranian embassy staff were wounded Thursday when unknown gunmen opened fire on their vehicle in Baghdad, Iran's Press TV said on Friday. Iran's Foreign Ministry condemned the attack, which occurred at 17:00 local

MOSCOW, May 16 (RIA Novosti) - Russia's Central Bank said Friday the country's narrowly defined money supply (M1) was 4 trillion 195.2 million rubles ($175.2 billion at the current exchange rate) as of May 12, up 30.3 billion rubles ($1.3

BEIJING, May 16 (RIA Novosti) - A school boy was rescued after 80 hours trapped in the rubble of a collapsed school building in southwest China's Sichuan province, hit by a powerful quake Monday, local media said on Friday. The

Recasts throughout, adds information in paras 2-6, 9) MOSCOW, May 16 (RIA Novosti) - All remaining members of the doomsday sect, holed up in a dugout in Russia's central Penza Region since November, have come to the surface, a local

MOSCOW, May 16 (RIA Novosti) - All remaining members of the doomsday sect, holed up in a dugout in Russia's central Penza Region since November, have come to the surface, a local authority spokesman said on Friday. Earlier Friday, rescuers

TBILISI, May 16 (RIA Novosti) - Georgian reintegration minister, Temur Yakobashvili, began a two-day visit to Moscow on Friday, his spokesman said. The minister will meet with a number of Foreign Ministry and State Duma officials to discuss a resolution

MOSCOW, May 16 (RIA Novosti) - Russia's Foreign Ministry criticized as counterproductive on Friday a move by the UN General Assembly to adopt a Tbilisi-sponsored resolution on the return of refugees to Georgia's breakaway republic of Abkhazia. The resolution recognizing

MOSCOW, May 16 (RIA Novosti) - Credit institutions' balances on correspondent accounts with the Russian Central Bank totaled 632.4 billion rubles ($26.5 billion at the current exchange rates) at the beginning of the business day, down 5.3% from Thursday, the

KIEV, May 16 (RIA Novosti) - Ukraine has become the 152nd member of the World Trade Organization, the largest global trade body. The accession document was signed by President Viktor Yushchenko and WTO chief Pascal Lamy on February 5. It

MOSCOW. (RIA Novosti political commentator Dmitry Kosyrev) - It seems that the international status of a state now depends not only on foreign policy, trade and cultural achievements, but on the ability of its government to cope with natural disasters.

MOSCOW, May 16 (RIA Novosti) - Russian President Dmitry Medvedev congratulated Zenit St. Petersburg on their recent UEFA Cup victory in the Kremlin on Friday. "I would like this victory to be a turning point in the development of Russian