Moscow - Lightning killed three people Thursday and hospitalized six others with electric burns in Russia's Volga region of Bashkortostan, a local emergency service spokesman said.

Moscow  - Russian oil tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky applied for parole on Wednesday, gambling on a reprieve under Russia's new President Dmitry Medvedev, his lawyer told journalists in Moscow.

"It took all our strength to convince Mikhail Borisovich (Khodorkovsky) to take this step," Yuri Schmidt who heads his defence was quoted by news agency Interfax as saying.

"Today, we handed a request for parole to the Chita regional court," he said, naming the city in east Siberia where Khodorkhovsky is serving the fifth year of his detention.

Moscow - Italian President Giorgio Napolitano met with Russia's ruling duo president Dmitry Medvedev and Premier Vladimir Putin in Moscow Wednesday for talks a Kremlin spokesman said would focus on

Moscow  - Russian scientists have been evacuated from an Arctic ice floe after their bas

Moscow,

Moscow - Iran's ongoing long-range missile tests prove the uselessness of US plans to build a missile shield in Eastern Europe, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Friday.