Moscow  - Texan space tourist Richard Garriott returned to firm ground Friday in a Russian Soyuz capsule that carried him and two Russian cosmonauts back from space.

The capsule with Richard Garriott, a computer games designer and son of NASA astronaut Owen Garriott, touched down safely around 0330 GMT at the Baikonour base on the steppes of Kazakhstan. Garriott paid 30 million dollars to follow in his father's footsteps.

Moscow - A drunk man triggered a hijack alert aboard a domestic flight to Moscow from the Black Sea resort of Sochi on Friday, the news agency Interfax reported.

The agency first cited an unnamed police officer as saying a passenger on board a Boeing 737 owned by Russian low-cost carrier SkyExpress had threatened to detonate a bomb with the cry of Allahu Akbar if the plane was not re-routed to Vienna, Austria.

Russia's Emergency Situations Ministry said it sent five ambulances to Moscow's Vnukovo airport before the flight landed.

Moscow - Some 15 people were kidnapped by alleged Islamic militants in Russia's strife-torn North Caucasus region, while at least eight police officers were injured in mine explosions, media reports said Friday.

Masked gunmen abducted up to 15 civilians in the Russian republic Ingushetia, the Interfax news agency reported the republic's Interior Ministry as saying.

In Chechnya, eight police officers were injured when two mines exploded in buildings, the agency said. Both incidents took place late Thursday evening.

Moscow - Russia's Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Thursday accused the EU mission in Georgia of ignoring escalating violence in buffer zones set outside the rebel regions under a ceasefire accord.

"We are concerned by the careless attitude toward what is happening in these zones. This is a dangerous game, they are playing with fire," Lavrov told journalists in Moscow.

Moscow - Moscow - Europe's biggest, most dynamic and hectic city - is impressive. But the fast-paced lives of Muscovites slow to a crawl as soon as they get into their cars each morning.

Bumper-to-bumper traffic is a side effect of Moscow's economic boom. Even on a normal weekday, about 650 traffic jams - totalling some 700 kilometres in length - will clog the streets. The average speed during rush hour is about 8 to 11 kilometres per hour.

Moscow  - Russia said Wednesday it could start an oil reserve as part of an effort with OPEC countries to bolstered prices down by half since July peaks.

OPEC Secretary General Abdullah al-Badri met with President Dmitry Medvedev on a two-day visit to coordinate policy with Moscow Wednesday before an emergency session of oil-exporting countries in Vienna Friday to discuss stop-gap measures to halt plummeting prices.