Chelsea's amazing preseason spending spree paid immediate dividends Sunday when the club opened its league campaign with a superb 2-1 victory at Liverpool thanks to a late winner by Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink.

Anton Chekalin scored the go-ahead run in Russia's first-ever Little League World Series win as Khovrino Little League of Moscow beat Central Little League of Agana, Guam, 2-0 in pool play Sunday night.

World No. 3 Justine Henin-Hardenne romped to a 6-1, 6-0 victory over unseeded Russian teenager Lina Krasnoroutskaya in the final of the $1.3 million Canadian Open on Sunday.

Just when I thought our Azeri lessons were getting dull, last week we got onto the subject of doctors and the remarkable treatments they offer their patients. How any sick person gets better in Azerbaijan never fails to amaze me.

The crash of the ruble that rocked Russia five years ago this week cost a lot of people a lot of money.

The coverage of the Yukos affair in the Russian and foreign press has gradually turned into a discussion of the relations between the state, society and big business that emerged as the result of the privatizations of the 1990s.

There is news one simply doesn't want to believe. The other morning on my way to work, when I heard that Herb Brooks, coach of the 1980 U.S. Olympic hockey team, had been killed in a car accident, I could think only that the report was a horrible mistake.

The Russian-American relationship has a serious problem. No, it's not Iraq, Iran or North Korea, each of which is the subject of complex but productive dialogue. The problem is more mundane but still potentially disruptive. It is the problem of American visas.

It's a gray and rainy afternoon in the development office of the Russian National Orchestra, but bright colors and fanciful posters decorate the plain white walls.

The life of a man who died a pauper after giving his possessions to those at the bottom is being celebrated on the 150th anniversary of his death this year.

Scientist on Trial VLADIVOSTOK, Far East (AP) -- The trial of a scientist charged with revealing state secrets to colleagues in China resumed Monday in Vladivostok after repeated delays. Vladimir Shchurov is accused in connection with a research project involving the Pacific Oceanological Institute, where Shchurov is a laboratory chief, and China's Harbin Engineering University. Prosecutors and the Federal Security Service claimed the acoustic measurement equipment developed by Shchurov and used in the joint project to study ocean noises and signals could be used for military purposes such as detecting submarines. Shchurov has rejected the charges, saying the research has no military applications and that the project had FSB approval. Shchurov, whose trial began last year, was initially charged in 2000 on five criminal counts, including illegal export of military technology and information.

Average folks and the media alike seem to be captivated by a vote looming thousands of kilometers away: Arnold Schwarzenegger's bid for the California governor's post.