Russia

MOSCOW -- Russia's ombudsman for children's rights sought on Thursday to reassure American would-be adoptive parents that they will be allowed to take their children back to the United States. But some Americans with court rulings in their favor say they're still in legal limbo.

OGDEN — An Ogden-area adoption agency claims a Friday adoption ban signed by Russian President Vladimir Putin only puts international adoptions for Americans under further threat as countries continue to close off adoption routes for U.S. citizens.

“The number of international children placed with families is less than half of what it was 10 years ago,” said Kathleen Kaiser, director of Wasatch International Adoption of Ogden.

Kaiser said she sees international adoptions being under threat every year, with countries like Guatemala, Romania and Nepal already closed to U.S. adoptions.

ARKHYZ, Russia — After years of trying to suppress religious and ethnic tensions in its southwestern mountains with guns and troops, Russia is offering new incentives to combat unrest and terrorism: ski slopes and sandy beaches.

The idea is to bring jobs and prospects to the people of the North Caucasus, where Islamic fundamentalism and separatist aspirations have resulted in death and violence in the region’s mountains and a thousand miles away in Moscow, the target of suicide bomber attacks. The vehicle is an $18 billion plan for seven ski resorts scattered through the mountains and three beach developments costing $4.6 billion on the Caspian Sea.

MOSCOW -- Vladimir Putin's spokesman defended the arrest of hundreds of demonstrators protesting the election returning the autocratic leader to the presidency, saying police were professional and effective.

MOSCOW -- After more than two decades of drilling in Antarctica, Russian scientists have reached the surface of a gigantic freshwater lake hidden under miles of ice for some 20 million years -- a lake that may hold life from the distant past and clues to the search for life on other planets.

MOSCOW -- Prime Minister Vladimir Putin vehemently rejected opposition calls for a rerun of the parliamentary election, accusing those who organized massive protests against vote fraud of working to weaken Russia at the West's behest.