Russia
Russian officials feed endangered Dalmatian pelicans starving in frozen Caspian
By Associated Press | Makhachkala | 21 Feb 2012
Authorities are scrambling to save hundreds of starving and endangered Dalmatian pelicans after the Caspian Sea froze for the first time in years.
Hundreds of the gray-white birds with distinctive curly feathers at their napes are jostling one another in a rare patch of unfrozen water at a shipyard near the city of Makhachkala, the capital of the southern Russian province of Dagestan.
Attack on Iran likely by summer: Russia
By Steve Gutterman | Reuters | Moscow | 15 Feb 2012
Russia’s top general said on Tuesday that he expects Iran’s enemies to decide in the next few months how to deal with a nuclear program that the United States and Israel have said they might attack.
How the Iran Nuclear Standoff Looks From Russia
By Dmitri Trenin | Bloomberg | Moscow | 14 Feb 2012
When Russians look at Iran, they see a country that has been their neighbor and rival forever. As the Russian empire advanced, it wrestled the North and South Caucasus from the Shah. Peter the Great annexed, briefly, Iran’s entire Caspian Sea coastline and put his forces just north of Tehran.
Race is on to find life under Antarctic ice sheet
By Alissa de Carbonnel | Reuters | Moscow | 14 Feb 2012
The race is on to discover life in the most remote and extreme environment known on Earth.
Russia has set the pace, piercing through Antarctica's icy crust to reach a freshwater lake to try to find ancient or new kinds of life that have adapted to the extremely cold, sunless climate and may shed light on the origins of evolution.
Russia makes religious education a compulsory subject in all public schools
By IslamToday & Agencies | 10 Feb 2012
Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin has made a decision to introduce religious to Russian public schools.
Parents will choose one of six models of the class and teachers will attend courses and trainings until the end of August.
Four models are religious – basics of Orthodox Christianity, Islam, Judaism or Buddhism and the remaining two are basics world religions and secular ethics.
Religious communities will choose teachers for the first four models.
Syria continues Homs assault as Russian FM arrives for talks
Source : Reuters | 07 Feb 2012
Syrian forces renewed their bombardment of Homs on Tuesday as Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov arrived in Damascus for talks aimed at pressing President Bashar al-Assad to end a bloody crackdown on a popular revolt and carry out reforms.
Activists said the fresh assault on Homs came after 95 people were killed on Monday in the city of one million people, a hub of protest and armed opposition against Assad. More than 200 were reported killed there on Friday night.
Why are U.S., Russia squabbling over Syria at the United Nations?
Source : Patrick J. McDonnell | LA Times | 31 Jan 2012
The United States and a coalition of Arab countries are likely to face off with Russia at the United Nations over a proposed resolution that could call on Syrian President Bashar Assad to step down, The Times reports. The result could help reshape the future of Syria after nearly a year of bloodshed.
What has been happening in Syria?
Russia to deliver combat jets to Syria: report
By AP | Moscow | 23 Jan 2012
A newspaper is reporting that Russia has signed a contract to sell combat jets to Syria in a show of support for President Bashar Assad’s regime.
The business daily Kommersant said Monday without identifying its source that the $550 million deal envisages the delivery of 36 Yak-130 aircraft. A spokesman for Russia’s Rosoboronexport state arms trader refused to comment on the report.
Russia warns West against Iran strike, sanctions
By Alexei Anishchuk | Reuters | Moscow | 18 Jan 2012
Russia warned on Wednesday that an attack on Iran would cause a catastrophe and said US and European Union sanctions against Tehran were aimed at triggering popular discontent by “strangling” the economy.
Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said that Western sanctions against Iran and talk of a potential attack undermine efforts to revive negotiations aimed at ensuring it does not develop nuclear weapons.
Real danger of US strike on Iran: Russia
By Agencies : Moscow | 12 Jan 2012
Russian Security Council secretary Nikolai Patrushev warned that military escalation is likely in Iran, with "real danger" of a US strike, in an interview published on Thursday.
He added that Syria, which has refused to break its ties with Tehran, could also be a target for Western intervention. "There is a likelihood of military escalation of the conflict, and Israel is pushing the Americans towards it," said Patrushev said in an interview published on the website of the daily Kommersant.
