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

Jamyang Lodoe was born in a small village in northwestern Nepal. There was no electricity, nobody owned a car, and even the most intrepid tourists didn't make it that far.

In the early 1970s when I helped found Greenpeace, I believed that nuclear energy was synonymous with nuclear holocaust, as did most of my American compatriots.

President Hu Jintao's visit to Washington this week has members of Congress grumbling that the Chinese are selling too much to the rest of the world.

U.S. President George W. Bush's stubborn support for his defense secretary, Donald Rumsfeld, has compounded U.S. troubles in Iraq, prevented a remedy for the criminal mistreatment of foreign detainees and worsened relations with a host of allies.

Every year around this time, Muscovites come out of their hiding places and consider adventures that have grown almost unfamiliar over the cold winter: walks, sports, travel. A friend over for dinner on Tuesday night mused about taking a trip. ""I was thinking about going to St. Petersburg,"" she said, ""but then I thought, I wouldn't feel safe walking around there."" My friend, who has been living in Moscow for more than 20 years, hails from one of the former Soviet republics and looks the part: She is much darker than most Russians, which makes her too dark for safety.

Velikhan Mirzekhanov, dean of the history department at Saratov State University, told Ekho Moskvy radio last week that he had been fired for speaking out against United Russia.

I have a strange little lump underneath my chin, so decided to seek out a dermatologist for a diagnosis. What I found was a creative sales pitch for a cure-all home remedy.

As the prosecution starts to wrap up its case against him, Hussein stays silent.