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

French Open champion Anastasia Myskina has been voted Russia's female player of the year by the panel of tennis journalists, coaches and officials.

Seven months ago, the leak of shocking photographs from the Abu Ghraib prison alerted the United States to the fact that its soldiers and interrogators were criminally abusing Iraqi detainees.

The witch-hunt against Kofi Annan and the United Nations over the Iraq oil-for-food scandal is, quite simply, a scandal all on its own.

One day Vladimir Vladimirovich™ Putin was looking over the results of the State Duma vote on introducing a new procedure for electing the heads of regional governments.

Crude oil futures sank for a fourth straight day Friday, settling beneath $43 per barrel for the first time in nearly three months and capping a 14 percent decline for the week.

Timber Export Halt LONDON (Bloomberg) -- Russia will suspend timber shipments to the European Union on March 1 because its wood will not meet new regulations, Interfax said, citing Sergei Dankvert, head of the Federal Service for Veterinary and Vegetation Sanitary Supervision. From March, any wood to be brought into the EU must have been stored in zones free of non-European wood pests and have undergone special processing to de-bark and fumigate it, Interfax said. Many Russian timber merchants are not prepared to comply with the new regulations, the news service said. Visa Monopoly Probe MOSCOW (MT) -- The Federal Anti-Monopoly Service said Friday it had opened an investigation into Visa International for alleged breach of competition laws. The service suspects Visa of using anti-competitive practices to achieve its dominant position on the payment cards market in Russia and requiring unwarranted criteria for membership. Visa controls about 40 percent of the market in Russia.