If there was just one indicator of growing confidence in domestic producers, it might be the success of the annual Buy Russian exhibition.

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

The city of Kazan may be over 1,000 kilometers away from the nearest sea, and winter temperatures often fall well below minus 20 degrees Celsius, but the city still reminds Giuseppe Sparta of his native Sicily.

Another name was added to the list of Petersburgers in top leadership positions last week -- in far-off Ashgabat. St. Petersburg Governor Valentina Matviyenko pulled into the Turkmen capital on Feb. 19 to attend birthday celebrations for Saparmurat Niyazov, president-for-life of Turkmenistan, or the great Turkmenbashi for short.

9.8% GDP Growth MOSCOW (Reuters) -- The Economic Development and Trade Ministry said Wednesday that the country's gross domestic product grew 9.8 percent in December 2003 in year-on-year terms, revising upwards its previous estimate of 8.2 percent. The economy grew 8.8 percent last November year-on-year and 5.2 percent in December 2002, according to the data published in the ministry's monthly economic survey. The ministry, which is the sole body in Russia to track GDP on a monthly basis, repeated the estimate of the State Statistics Committee for 2003 GDP growth of 7.3 percent. The government expects the country to post at least 5.5 percent growth this year as oil money gushes into the economy, buoying investment and domestic demand. Economists say the official estimate looks conservative, and some forecast that 2004 economic growth may outstrip last year's performance if global crude and commodities prices -- the country's key export -- stay high.

U.S. and North Korean envoys staked out widely divergent positions at the start of six-party talks on the crisis over the North's nuclear arms programs Wednesday, underscoring the difficulty of a breakthrough.

Thousands of homeless Moroccans struggled to rebuild their shattered lives Wednesday after a powerful earthquake that killed nearly 600 people forced survivors to spend the night in the open.