Moscow, Oct 1 : Russian archaeologists have found 75 ancient graves dating from the 15th to the 18th century at the excavation site of the necropolis by Nikolo-Dvorishchenskiy Cathedral in Veliki Novgorod in north-western Russia.

Moscow archaeologist and anthropologist Denis Pezhemsky said, excavation work has been going on since early July, and they were expecting more entombments to be dug out.

Pezhemski said the remnants of the ancient Novgorod dwellers are all kept in sarcophagi, which are of great historical value.

London, Oct.1 : Former World Chess Champion Garry Kasparov, the driving force behind a Russian opposition campaign to remove President Vladimir Putin from office, was last night selected to be its presidential candidate.
According to The Telegraph, Kasparov received 379 out of 498 votes cast at a National Congress held in Moscow.

The Russia's presidential election in which Mr Putin is constitutionally barred from standing, will take place in March 2008.

Washington, Sept 28 : Pakistan and Russia are the two most vulnerable countries to nuclear theft, according to a new report by a prestigious Washington think-tank.

The report by the group called Nuclear Threat Initiative (NTI) says that of the states that have either nuclear weapons or significant amounts of high-quality weapons-usable materials, only Pakistan fares as poorly as Russia in Transparency International’s ratings of corruption levels.

Washington, Sept.22 : Rock samples retrieved last month from beneath the Arctic Ocean indicate that the North Pole is part of Russia, the Russian government announced yesterday.

The Russians contend that the Lomonosov Ridge, an undersea structure running across the Arctic Ocean beneath the pole, is a geological extension of the Russian region of Siberia.