Complete coverage of the U.S.-Russia summit, being held July 6-8 in Moscow.

People will soon be able to call mobile phones from landlines without paying a kopek, IT and Communications Minister Leonid Reiman said. ""We will try to resolve this problem before the end of 2008,"" Reiman told Ekho Moskvy radio. ""It will be partially resolved by March 1, when a government directive on the issue comes into effect.""

In a positive sign for Moscow's continued influence in Central Asia, Uzbek President Islam Karimov will meet President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday in his first official visit abroad since being re-elected in December.

Lawyer Boris Kuznetsov, who has defended numerous high-profile clients against government charges and is suspected of divulging state secrets, said Tuesday that he had requested political asylum in the United States.

Aleksanyan Trial DelayNew Region, New GovernorFire at FSB HeadquartersVictim Not With IKEA

The new chief of the Hungarian secret services, who spent six years at the KGB's academy in Moscow during the 1980s, in January became the chairman of NATO's intelligence committee, a rotating post that is held for a year.

An explosion tore through an apartment building Tuesday in St. Petersburg, killing one and wounding two others, officials said.

Police have arrested eight young men suspected of involvement in the murders of at least 20 dark-skinned foreigners, authorities said Tuesday.

In any club or restaurant where the alcohol is flowing freely, it's usually patrons of the fair sex who are forced to suffer long lines for the bathroom.

The Supreme Court on Tuesday turned down an appeal by Former Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov that he be allowed on the ballot for the March 2 presidential election.