* Russian Agriculture Minister Alexei Gordeyev said the ministry was planning poultry vaccination campaigns in areas crossed by migrating birds

// Feb. 23, 2006 - 06:52 GMT

MOSCOW, February 23 (RIA Novosti) – Thirteen people were killed and 18 injured during he collapse of a roof at a local market in the Russian capital Thursday morning, the Emergency Situations Ministry said.

// Feb. 23, 2006 - 07:07 GMT

MOSCOW, February 23 (RIA Novosti) – A district prosecutor warned the director of a capital market where a roof collapsed on Thursday morning about the building maintenance violations, the Moscow Prosecutor said.

// Feb. 23, 2006 - 07:34 GMT

MOSCOW, February 23 (RIA Novosti) – The collapse of a roof at a market in the Russian capital that killed 14 people so far could have been caused by heavy load of snow accumulated on top of the building, Mayor Yury Luzhkov said Thursday. "The possible cause [of the collapse] is the excessive amount of snow gathered on the roof, which has a concave shape," the mayor said. He confirmed that after a tragedy at Transvaal Park in Moscow on February 14, 2004 that killed 28 and injured more than a hundred, all buildings designed by Architect Nodar Kancheli had been inspected. The roof of the Baumansky market was designed to support heavy loads of snow and had special drainage systems.

// Feb. 23, 2006 - 08:01 GMT

18 people have been killed and 24 injured when a roof collapsed over a local market in the Russian capital Thursday morning, the Emergency Situations Ministry said.

// Feb. 23, 2006 - 08:33 GMT

MOSCOW, (RIA Novosti) – The Russian armed forces are undergoing deep reforms, but there is still a lot of work ahead, the defense minister said Thursday.

// Feb. 23, 2006 - 08:57 GMT

MOSCOW, February 23 (RIA Novosti) – A grand-scale rescue operation involving 500 workers is currently under way at the Basmanny market in the center of Moscow where a roof collapse on Thursday morning killed at least 21 people and injured about 24, an emergency situations ministry official said. "We have deployed all our local and federal resources, about 500 rescue workers," Andrei Legoshin said. "We have enough people and equipment." "There are still people who are alive under the debris," he said. "We can hear their voices and the dogs indicate the same." Legoshin said there could be as many as 40 more people under the rubble.

// Feb. 23, 2006 - 09:15 GMT

MOSCOW, February 23 (RIA Novosti) – The Moscow Mayor confirmed Thursday that there were no Muscovites among victims of a roof collapse at the Basmanny market in the center of the Russian capital. "So far, no Muscovites have been registered among either dead or rescued people," Yury Luzhkov said, adding that at this point the death toll had reached 21 people.

// Feb. 23, 2006 - 09:53 GMT

The number of people killed in the accident when the snow-covered roof of a Moscow market collapsed, has reached 27, and will grow two or three times bigger, rescuers said.

// Feb. 23, 2006 - 10:13 GMT

MOSCOW, February 23 (RIA Novosti) – The police have so far not registered serious violations of law and order during the festivities dedicated to the Fatherland Defenders Day, a senior police official said Thursday.

// Feb. 23, 2006 - 10:35 GMT