Moscow - An internet site launched Thursday about the life and work of Nobel Prize-winning author

Moscow - A hospitalization forced former Soviet leader Mikhail Go

Moscow - Right-wing extremists have claimed responsibility for decapitating a 20-year-old foreign worker from the former Soviet republic of Tajikistan, Interfax news agency reported Thursday, citing investigators and human rights organizations.

The Tajik man's head was discovered in a plastic bag in a rubbish bin in Moscow. His body had been found on December 6.

A group calling itself the "Combat Organization of Russian Nationalists" claimed responsibility for the attack in a image sent by mobile phone.

Moscow - At least four construction workers died in Moscow when a derelict building the

Brussels - The European Union is "deeply worried" by police raids in Russia on a non-governmental organization (NGO) dedicated to the victims of Stalin's regime, the EU said in a statement Wednesday.

The EU is "deeply worried" by police raids on the St Petersburg- based NGO "Memorial" on Thursday, and sees them as a "negative signal" of Russia's attitude towards human rights, a statement from the French government on behalf of the bloc said.

France currently holds the EU's rotating presidency.

Moscow - The funeral of Patriarch Alexi II, the late head of the Russian Orthodox Church, took place Tuesday in Moscow's Cathedral of Christ the Saviour.

Religious leaders, public representatives and foreign dignitaries paid their last respects before the patriarch's open casket at a moving Requiem Mass.

Metropolitan Kirill of Smolensk and Kaliningrad, who was appointed temporary leader of the church after Alexi's death, led the liturgy.

Alexi II was due to be buried in the afternoon.