A brief look at the stories making headlines in the Russian-language press

The opening ceremony of the first all-Russian Youth Spartakiad was held this month in Kazan.

Despite a U.S. veto threat, the Security Council was poised to vote Tuesday on a resolution put forward by Arab nations demanding that Israel not harm or deport Palestinian President Yasser Arafat.

In a 66-page opinion, the panel, made up of Judges Harry Pregerson, Sidney Thomas and Richard Paez, cited Bush vs. Gore repeatedly to support the view that California's Oct. 7 gubernatorial recall election would be unconstitutional if the state, as planned, used outmoded punch-card ballot machines like those that contributed to the deadlock in Florida in 2000.

The administration of U.S. President George W. Bush says that despite pledges, Syria has not stopped militants from crossing into Iraq to kill U.S. soldiers.

Three people were killed and 34 injured in an explosion after a man, wielding a knife and crossbow and demanding back pay, took hostages in an office in the Japanese city of Nagoya on Tuesday and set the area alight.

Not far from Potala Palace, the hilltop fortress once home to Tibet's exiled spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, the main commercial boulevard here has become a very different symbol, of how Tibet is inexorably becoming more Chinese.