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

The massive earthquake and tsunamis that shattered coastal Asia virtually wiped out the western coast of the Indonesian island nearest the quake's epicenter, military officials who reached the area for the first time said Wednesday.

With murder victims flushed down toilets, contract hits ordered by spouses and a tenant cooking up his landlady's dog for snacks, 2004 was a typically grisly and disturbing year in Moscow crime.

When she was growing up in Chicago, an all-American girl who liked school, dancing and boys, they called her Kathy.

Nuclear Trade Arrest MOSCOW (Reuters) -- Police detained a South Korean citizen on Wednesday on suspicion of smuggling radioactive materials into the Far East, Itar-Tass reported. Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk prosecutors said the suspect, Kim Jong-hon, worked for a South Korean firm suspected of illegally trading low-enriched uranium-238, Itar-Tass reported. The South Korean Embassy could not confirm the report. Soros Under Fire ALMATY, Kazakhstan (AP) -- A branch of philanthropist George Soros' foundation on Wednesday accused Kazakhstan's government of seeking its closure by opening a tax evasion investigation that it called politically motivated. Soros' Open Society Institute has been under pressure following allegations that it funded protests in Georgia last year that led to the ouster of the leader there. Soros denied that his foundation played any role.