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

Amid the chandeliers and gilded columns of the Kremlin's Alexandrovsky Hall, President Vladimir Putin looked tanned and confident before an audience of Russia's political elite this month as he revealed plans to pump an extra $4 billion next year into education, healthcare and housing.

The statue of Maxim Gorky opposite Belorussky Station is to be taken down in the coming weeks, as work begins on a large underground shopping center, part of a development that will transform the square -- and hopefully unblock one of the city's most notorious bottlenecks.

A St. Petersburg family became the first to be evicted from its apartment for failing to pay for communal services under the new Housing Code.

Work has begun on the site of Greenwood, Russia's largest suburban business park, which will house 14 top-class office buildings 18 kilometers from the Kremlin.

In the heart of the city, just around the corner from the Kremlin, Cafe Freud offers insights into one of the most prominent manifestations of post-Soviet Russia: ornate, over-the-top bathrooms.

No more than two flies or two pieces of discarded trash or waste are allowed in Beijing's public toilets at any given time.

Where it's moved to is not my problem,"" Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov said with evident pleasure when asked about the future of a U.S. military base in Uzbekistan, which authorities have ordered vacated within months. ""It's not like I have to move it myself,"" Ivanov said.

In the space of just 10 days this month the Russian media community was shaken by the loss of four of its leading lights. Semyon Levin, the well-known television graphic designer, died on Sept. 11. Yury Zapol, head of Video International, passed away two days later. On Sept. 18, Yegor Yakovlev, best known as the editor of the newspaper Moskovskiye Novosti during the perestroika era, died in a hospital after a long illness, and then show business producer Yury Aizenshpis died on Sept. 21.

Despite flood waters nearly 3 meters high and widespread property loss, evacuation efforts are seen as a success after Katrina.