Events may take an unexpected turn regarding Russia’s possible membership in the World Trade Organization. It may seem at first sight that things are developing steadily and normally as they did before: another stage of negotiations started in Washington on Monday. The head of the Department for Trade Talks of the Ministry for Economic Development, Maxim Medvedkov, chairs the Russian delegation at the talks. Medvedkov communicates with US representatives Dorothy Dwoskin and Susan Schwab.

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Russian scientists have discovered the cure for all diseases.

Such claims from the doctors in local clinics might seem absurd at first. But do not rush to conclusions. Researchers of two well-known Russian institutes have almost simultaneously without contacting each other come up with “live” and “dead” water. Both have equal chances to become the cure for all sicknesses! MK reporters went in for an interview and a sip of miracle liquid.

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Jose Eduardo dos Santos in Moscow

The Angolan President, Jose Eduardo dos Santos, visits Moscow between October 30^th and November 1^st this year at the invitation of President Vladimir Putin.

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CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. - The Russian space agency on Thursday postponed by four days its launch next month of a Soyuz capsule carrying an American who is the first female space tourist to the international space station, a spokesman said.

The postponement until Sept. 18 follows repeated delays in the launch of the space shuttle Atlantis to the ISS. That launch, initially scheduled for Aug. 27, was pushed back to an unspecified date because of Tropical Storm Ernesto and a lightning strike at Cape Canaveral, Fla.

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STAR CITY, Russia - Like millions of children, Anousheh Ansari dreamed and wondered about the stars. Next month the Iranian-born U.S. entrepreneur can get a closer look, as she rides a Russian capsule to the international space station and becomes the first female to pay her own way into space.

The most exciting moment in her voyage will likely come when she first sees Earth “as a blue, glowing globe against the dark background of the cosmos,” Ansari, 39, told a news conference Wednesday at the Russian cosmonaut training center outside Moscow.

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A Russian plane has crashed in eastern Ukraine minutes after sending a distress signal, killing all 170 people on board, officials said. The Tupolev-154 was flying from the Russian Black Sea holiday resort of Anapa to St Petersburg when it disappeared from radar screens.

Emergency workers were at the scene of the burning wreckage, about 45km (30 miles) north of the city of Donetsk.

A Russian official said 30 bodies had been found.

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An explosion at a Moscow market has killed 10 people, including at least two children, Russian officials say. At least 40 other people were injured in the blast at 1030 (0630 GMT) at the eastern Cherkizovsky market.

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Four Russian mountaineers have gone missing in Pakistan on the world’s second highest mountain, K2. The four climbers, who disappeared on Sunday, were part of a 10-member international expedition.

Three injured French climbers from another expedition had to be evacuated by military personnel from another mountain in northern Pakistan.

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Israel ’s U.N. Ambassador Dan Gillerman rejected on Friday a Russian proposal for a 72-hour humanitarian truce in the month-old war between Israel and Lebanese Hizbollah guerrillas.

Gillerman said he met Russia’s U.N. ambassador Vitaly Churkin to “explain that a ceasefire of this type would serve only one purpose, to allow Hizbollah to regroup and recover”.

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WHITE SULPHUR SPRINGS, West Virginia (AP) — The once-secret shelter built to house Congress after a nuclear attack will reopen to tourists after a two-year renovation, but the $15 million monument to the Cold War still has some secrets.

About 70 percent of the 112,000-square-foot bunker, deep under the posh Greenbrier resort, will become a secure repository for data and documents.

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