* The State Duma, Russia's lower house of parliament, passed a bill in the second reading regulating the activities of non-governmental organizations

// Dec. 22, 2005 - 05:26 GMT

MOSCOW

// Dec. 22, 2005 - 05:29 GMT

MOSCOW, December 22 (RIA Novosti) – All airports in Moscow have been operating normally despite a heavy snowfall through the night, an air traffic control official said Thursday.

// Dec. 22, 2005 - 05:42 GMT

MOSCOW, December 22 (RIA Novosti) – A Kosmos-3M carrier rocket has successfully brought a Gonets-D1M communications satellite into orbit, the Russian Space Agency said Thursday.

// Dec. 22, 2005 - 06:10 GMT

GROZNY, December 22 (RIA Novosti) – The number of Chechen residents poisoned by an unidentified substance has reached 72, a local official said Thursday.

// Dec. 22, 2005 - 06:31 GMT

VLADIVOSTOK, December 22 (RIA Novosti, Veronika Perminova) – The toxic slick moving along the Amur River will reach Khabarovsk, Russia's Far East, Thursday afternoon, the local branch of the Russian Emergency Situations Ministry said Thursday.

// Dec. 22, 2005 - 06:43 GMT

I would like to say that not all U.S. Citizens know and agree with what the government does with suspected terrorists and enemies of the state. But this is not a problem only for the United States. Iraq's past leader and son's tortured suspected anti-government people while in power. Brutally torturing people to death. has the U.S. beheaded any ot its prisoners, threatened to kill them if they don't comply? Other countries have similar "black-secrets" in their closets. I am proud to be an American but I stand for fair judgement and treatment. A government will do what it thinks is necessary to protect it's people. It is unfortunate that some individuals will take on their own twist to what they think is right and justified. Please see that all countries and governments have activities and policies that have been altered and abused. Why is it so difficult to drop all the fears, mistrust and hate and be one world. It amazes me at how far behind we all are because we can't get along.

// Dec. 22, 2005 - 07:04 GMT

TYUMEN, December 22 (RIA Novosti, Alexander Perestoronin) – The administration of the Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Area in central Russia has concluded a cooperation agreement with Russian oil and gas company Slavneft, a company spokesman said Thursday.

// Dec. 22, 2005 - 07:22 GMT

New Zealand is putting more than $1 million towards the decommissioning of a Russian nuclear reactor and the destruction of chemical weapons in Siberia.

// Dec. 22, 2005 - 07:32 GMT

ROSTOV-ON-DON, December 22 (RIA Novosti, Ilya Livada) – A minor earthquake rattled the republic of Dagestan in southern Russia Thursday morning, the regional Emergency Situations Ministry office said.

// Dec. 22, 2005 - 07:32 GMT