Moscow - Walt Disney has applied to Russian authorities for permission to form a joint venture with broadcaster Media-One Holdings to launch a family channel on
30 stations in Russia, local media reported on Wednesday.

Disney would hold 49 per cent stake in the Russian television venture, invest cash and provide programming and marketing expertise. Media-One is to stand as the majority shareholder.

The channel is set to be launched next year, pending approval by Russia's regulatory authorities, in what is one of the world's fastest growing media markets.

Moscow - The mayor of a town in north-western Russia has been stabbed to death by an unknown attacker, news agencies cited a police source as saying Wednesday.

"An unidentified person ran up to the mayor as she was leaving her house, stabbed her in the neck and fled the scene," the source said.

The motive for the attack late Tuesday evening was unclear, the security source said.

A suspect, who had earlier worked with the Kandalaksha mayor, Nina Varlamova, in the local government, has been detained, local police said.

Varlamova took office in December 2007 after the previous mayor of the Northern Russian town was jailed for corruption, news agencies reported.

Moscow - Russia's industrial output contracted by 8.7 per cent year-on-year in November, the largest contraction in a decade, official statistics released Tuesday stated, fueling fears of an impending recession.

Russia's Federal Statistics Service attributed the slump to reduced demand for steel, paper pulp, fertilizer and coal brought about by the global downturn.

Moscow - A Moscow city court Mo

Moscow - The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) expects Russia to cut oil production to stymie tumbling prices, the head of Russia's largest private producer LUKoil said Monday.

Under OPEC's plan for what may be the cartel's deepest production cutbacks yet, Russia would be asked to cut its output by between 200,000 and 300,000 barrels per day
(bpd), LUKoil head Vagit Alekperov said.

He said LUKoil would support cuts on production and was looking at what wells would be least painful to suspend, if the Russian government went along with OPEC's plan.

Moscow - Russian and US officials held talks Monday on missile defence, arms control and other issues amidst currently unraveling security ties between the two Cold War superpowers.

Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov and US Under-Secretary of State for Arms Control and International Security John Rood led the closed-door meeting.

Russia's Foreign Ministry gave no details on the talks, which are to address a replacement for the 1991 START-1 nuclear arms pact set to expire next year.