Chief mediator Kofi Annan on Wednesday put Kenya's crisis talks back on course toward a deal after defusing a row over his plan for a ''grand coalition'' government to end post-election turmoil. Annan had irked negotiators for President Mwai Kibaki when he told Parliament on Tuesday that a power-sharing government could be a way out of the crisis.
Final preparations were under way in Russia on Saturday for parliamentary elections expected to hand a sweeping victory to President Vladimir Putin's party, just three months before presidential polls. From Kamchatka to Kaliningrad, 109-million voters are eligible to cast ballots on Sunday in Russia's fifth parliamentary elections since the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union.