No image available
/ 20 December 2005

Poison slick to reach Russian city ‘in hours’

A toxic slick floating down a river from China for more than a month was due to reach the Russian city of Khabarovsk within hours and experts were making last-minute preparations to deal with the poison. Khabarovsk residents have been stocking up on drinking water and making other arrangements for weeks and the city was calm as the benzene slick floated to within around 15km of the city limits.

No image available
/ 5 August 2005

Russian mini-submarine trapped on sea floor

A Russian mini-submarine with seven sailors aboard got caught on a fishing net and is stuck on the sea floor off Russia’s Pacific Coast, navy officials said on Friday. Navy authorities have scrambled to try to figure out how to raise the vessel from a depth of about 190m amid conflicting statements on how long the air supply will last.

No image available
/ 18 November 2004

Russian sweets-for-smokes plan fails

Young Russians are reluctant to be weaned off cigarettes, and a drive to persuade them hand over their packets of fags in return for sweets on Thursday fell flat, organisers admitted. Militants of the youth section of the pro-Kremlin United Russia armed themselves with sweets that they hoped to exchange for 3 000 packets of cigarettes.