Corporate travelers are paying more for hotel rooms in Moscow than in any other city on the planet, according to a study released last week by a major travel management company, Business Travel International.

A report on investors' sentiments toward real estate markets across Europe has found strong ""buy"" recommendations for all property types in Moscow.

January Budget Surplus Russia posted a preliminary 219 billion ruble ($7.8 billion) budget surplus in January as revenue increased faster than planned because of high oil prices, the Finance Ministry said Monday. Revenue reached 450 billion rubles in January, or 38 percent of the revenue planned for the entire first quarter, the ministry said in a statement on its web site. Revenue outpaced the plan even as most domestic companies were closed for a 10-day holiday in January. Russia's budget surplus is expected to more than triple in 2006 from 2005, according to the budget plan. (Bloomberg) Sibneft Bids for Udmurtneft Sibneft has made a preliminary bid for the TNK-BP unit Udmurtneft, Interfax reported Monday, citing a representative of Sibneft whom it did not identify. Russneft and Severo-Zapadnaya oil group have also made preliminary bids, the news agency said. Sibneft has not decided yet to make a final bid and would not say how much it was willing to pay, Interfax said.

Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin's use of the international stage to warn about inflationary risks to Russia's economy has widened a government rift over tax and spending priorities, analysts said Monday.

Tucked away in a remote valley in Romania's Carpathian mountains, a tiny ice hotel has opened to attract tourists and their cash to the unspoilt forests of some of Europe's greatest wilderness.

A suicide bomber detonated an explosive belt Monday in a line of people waiting to receive government payments, killing at least eight other people and wounding about 30, including children and police, hospital officials said.

Hamas said on Monday that it had chosen one of its leaders to be the next Palestinian prime minister after a landslide victory in parliamentary elections, but refused to name him.

U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney accidentally shot and wounded a prominent Austin, Texas, lawyer on Saturday while the two men were quail hunting in South Texas, firing a shotgun at the man while trying to aim for a bird, a member of the hunting party said.