The legendary actress Lyudmila Gurchenko, a beloved star of the Soviet and Russian silver screen since the 1950s, died of heart failure on March 30 at the age of 75. Gurchenko acted in almost a hundred films and worked with Russia’s most prolific directors, such as Nikita Mikhalkov, Eldar Ryazanov, Petr Todorovsky, in the course [...]
Archives: March 2011
March 31, 2011
March 31, 2011
Police Bust Up Anti-Kremlin Rallies In Moscow, St. Petersburg
MOSCOW — Russian police detained dozens of anti-Kremlin protesters as they tried to demonstrate for the right to assemble on Triumph Square in central Moscow. Similar protests and detentions were reported in St. Petersburg and Nizhny Novgorod. The protesters were heavily outnumbered by riot police. At least 54 of a group of more radical opposition [...]
March 31, 2011
N. Caucasus leader urges militants to ‘return to normal life’
The head of Russia’s North Caucasus republic of Kabardino-Balkaria called Thursday on militants to surrender and resume living normal lives. Arsen Kanokov’s call comes after the parents of suspected members of “illegal armed groups” appealed to them, on March 22, to lay down their arms and turn themselves in to law enforcement. “This appeal is [...]
March 31, 2011
Russian opposition groups protest in Moscow, St. Petersburg
Regular rallies in support of Article 31 of the Russian constitution, which guarantees the right to free assembly, were held in Moscow and St. Petersburg in the traditional manner on Thursday: sparsely attended with opposition leaders and many of the demonstrators being detained. About 100 people came to an unsanctioned rally on Moscow’s downtown Triumfalnaya [...]
March 31, 2011
Belarus foreign trade deficit up $2 bln in Jan-Feb
Belarus’ foreign trade deficit increased $2 billion in the first two months of the current year, Economy Minister Nikolai Snopkov said on Thursday. The country’s foreign trade deficit in 2010 was $9.6 billion, up 32.7% on the previous year. The minister attributed the rise to higher prices of raw materials, especially oil. Another factor in [...]
March 31, 2011
Libya: Confrontation on the ground, bombs from the air
Libya: Confrontation on the ground, bombs from the air 22:59 31/03/2011 The military operation in Libya continues. Government troops attempt to oust the rebels from strategically important cities in the country, holding off the rebel forces backed by the international coalition. The rebels try to move west to the Libyan capital of Tripoli, where leader Muammar Gaddafi [...]
March 31, 2011
Pentagon: ‘no American boots on the ground in Libya
The United States will not become involved in any operations on the ground in Libya, Secretary of Defense Robert Gates said on Thursday, declaring that Colonel Gaddafi will be removed by his own people. Testifying in the House of Representatives Armed Services Committee on the ongoing international military operations in Libya, he said the United [...]
March 31, 2011
Magnetars
Scarcely a week passes without scientists discovering new “threats to humanity.” These threats are often considerably exaggerated and gladly spread by mass media. Meteorites hitting the Earth, exploding stars, fading Sun, you name it… Sergei Popov, Ph.D., senior research associate at the Sternberg Astronomical Institute,in an interview with RIA Novosti’s Samir Shakhbaz tries to separate [...]
March 31, 2011
Main news of March 31
WORLD * The United States will not become involved in any operations on the ground in Libya, Secretary of Defense Robert Gates said, declaring that Colonel Gaddafi will be removed by his own people * Japan’s troubled Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant will most likely be closed down, the Kyodo news agency reported, quoting [...]
March 31, 2011
The bell tolls for Strategy 31
After several months when the pressure for political change in Russia seemed to be building, Russia’s fledging protest movement has come a cropper, a victim of a logical cul-de-sac. It was unusually quiet in Moscow’s Pushkin Square today as I joined hundreds of others to sound the funeral bell for Strategy 31. The 31-ers have [...]
March 31, 2011
Arab nations find a volunteer for the war in Libya
Yelena Suponina for RIA Novosti The coalition fighting in Libya is not a strictly Western affair. Muslim Turkey is one of the 28 NATO countries taking part, and Qatari aircraft have been patrolling Libyan skies since March 25. The small but prosperous Gulf state is also heading up the recently established Libya Contact Group. Qatari [...]
March 31, 2011
Ohio lawmakers slam unions with new law
The Ohio legislature has passed a bill aimed at restricting collective bargaining rights for state employee union workers, following Wisconsin and other states targeting organized labor. Ohio Gov. John Kasich must now sign the bill into law. He has backed the bill thus far and is expected to do so soon. In addition to restricting [...]
March 31, 2011
March 31, 2011
Homeless Japan: tsunami victims anxious over housing trouble
The earthquake and tsunami that caused massive destruction at Fukushima also wiped out entire communities. People who lost their homes are living in overcrowded shelters, while the painstaking clean-up operation continues. For the first time since the tsunami, residents of the city of Ishinomaki finally had a chance to search through their destroyed homes. In [...]