Moscow, Computer giant Apple has contracted specialists from Russian anti-virus company Kaspersky Lab to analyse the vulnerabilities of its Mac OS X operating system and improve its security. The OS X security issue became important in early April, when Dr. Web, a Russian computer security company, reported finding botnets -- or networks of compromised computers controlled by hackers -- that included more than 500,000 infected Macs. It was previously thought that Apple computers enjoyed better protection from viruses than computers operating on Microsoft Windows. The appearance of this latest threat has forced Apple to address the security issue, RIA Novosti reported citing the computing.co.uk website. "Apple recently invited us to improve its security. We've begun an analysis of its vulnerabilities, and the malware targeting it," said Kaspersky chief technology officer Nikolai Grebennikov. "Mac OS is really vulnerable," he said. Anti-virus experts, including those at Kaspersky Lab, say the OS X system has a better security record than Windows because the Apple operating system is used on fewer machines. But rising sales of Apple computers, and the appearance of ...
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NewYork, Russian spy Anna Chapman was living at the time of her arrest in June 2010 with a high powered New York lawyer who had told his friends that she gave him "the best sex" he'd ever had. Chapman was deported in July that year on suspicion of working for a Russian spy ring and pleaded guilty to conspiracy to act as an agent of a foreign government without notifying the US attorney general. According to sources, she was staying with John Altorelli in his West 37th Street apartment. He threw a party there with Chapman just before her arrest, where he introduced her to friends as "the woman in his life" . Altorelli also boasted that she was very adventurous in bed, the New York Post reported. It's unclear when the relationship began, but sources say that Altorelli caught the spy's eye after he separated from his wife and shed a lot of weight. They add that he showered her with gifts, including clothes and jewels, and they cohabitated in his huge Hell's Kitchen apartment. There's still a picture of them together on the website of society photographer Patrick McMullan, dated May, 18, 2010. Sources said that Chapman's Facebook page, since taken down, was plastered with ...
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Moscow, Russia does not consider Iran an enemy, but opposes the country's development of nuclear arms, a Russian minister has said. Deputy Defence Minister Anatoly Antonov said Iran was Russia's neighbour, and that Moscow treats its neighbour "carefully", Xinhua reported. However, he stressed that Russia was committed to a non-proliferation regime. "Russia is not interested in the emergence of new nuclear missile threats on the perimeter of its borders. This is a fundamental stance of Russia, and this is a matter of principle for us," Antonov said. Meanwhile, Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov has warned against a possible military scenario in Iran. He said there was still potential to settle the Iranian nuclear issue through negotiations. "All possibilities for negotiations have not been used yet. It is necessary to reach an agreement and we're dealing with it," Ryabkov said. "Diplomacy is better than a war. Talks are better than bomb strikes," he said. He said a meeting between Iran and six international mediators -- Russia, US, France, Britain, China and Germany -- will likely be held in April, but the date and the place have not been fixed ...
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Moscow, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin claimed victory after receiving nearly 65 percent of the votes during the presidential election on Sunday, according to preliminary election results. The opposition claims the results were rigged in Putin's favor. According to data from Russia's Central Election Commission, approximately 63.3 percent of registered voters participated in Sunday's presidential election. But even before the election was held, Putin's return to the Kremlin was all but certain although he suffered a nearly 7 percent loss when compared to his previous victory in 2004. As of 4 a.m. local time on Monday, with 87.73 percent of the votes counted, results from the Central Election Commission put Putin far ahead with approximately 64.72 percent of the vote. He is followed by Communist leader Gennady Zyuganov and self-nominee businessman Mikhail Prokhorov who won 17.04 and 7.09 percent respectively. "We won! We have won in an open and fair fight," Putin said as he addressed more than 100,000 supporters in Moscow. "This was more than a presidential election. This was a very important test for us all, for all of our people. This was a test to see whether we are ...
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Moscow, Russia said Thursday that it would continue to implement all of its obligations concerning arms supplies to Damascus and rejected setting up a "group of friends" for Syria. "We implement our deals with Syria and other countries in the frames of international agreements, not violating international rules and obligations. Syria has not been under international sanction regime," Xinhua quoted Russian foreign ministry spokesman Alexandr Lukashevich as saying. Lukashevich denied that Canada had protested Russian arms shipments to Syria. "We did not receive any protest," the spokesman said, "These are rumours spread by some media." Moscow also found it illegitimate to set up a "group of friends" of Syria as proposed by the US. "We do not consider that format legitimate in international judicial term," Lukashevich said, citing the negative experience of such a format in the case of ...
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Moscow, Russia and India Monday started preparations for the joint INDRA-2012 military exercises scheduled to be held in Russia this summer, a Russian official said. Lt. Col. Alexander Gordeyev, spokesman for the Eastern Military District, said: "An Indian military delegation arrived on Monday in Ulan Ude (in Russia's Far East) to discuss the preparation for INDRA-2012 military drills to be held this summer." Russian and Indian military officials will survey the terrain at the training range where the drills will be held, the spokesman said. Since 2003, India and Russia have conducted five of the INDRA-series joint ground and naval exercises. The last such exercise was held between the two countries' army units in India in October 2010. However, Russia cancelled both INDRA-series ground and naval exercises last year despite an earlier announcement by the Russian General Staff that INDRA drills may be held every year and involve three branches of the armed ...
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Moscow, Russia has defended its rejection of a UN resolution condemning the violent crackdown in Syria, saying the Security Council was too hasty in putting it to a vote. "It is unfortunate that the (resolution's) co-authors decided to put it to a vote urgently, although we had asked them to delay it for several days so that we could discuss the situation after (Russian Foreign Intelligence Service head) Mikhail Fradkov and I visited Damascus on February 7," Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Monday. "Nothing would have changed if they had waited three days," Lavrov said. Lavrov and Fradkov are due to hold talks with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. Russia and China vetoed the draft resolution criticising Damascus, claiming it lacked balance. Vitaly Churkin, Russian envoy to the UN, said it targeted al-Assad's government but contained no measures against rebel armed groups. The vetoes drew a barrage of criticism from Western powers and the Syrian opposition. US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton called them a "travesty", and the Syrian National Council said Russia and China were "responsible for the escalating acts of killing". But Lavrov said Monday the ...
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Moscow, Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin has dismissed the idea of a political amnesty because he said there were no political prisoners in the country. "I don't quite understand what is meant by political amnesty. I don't think we have any political prisoners, thank God," Putin said Monday. He said there was talk about political prisoners but no names were provided. "They (the opposition) should have shown at least one person who is in prison for political reasons," Putin said. Opposition activists said at an anti-Putin rally during the weekend that they had prepared a list of around 40 political prisoners and would shortly present it to the ...
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Beijing, Russian helicopter maker Rostvertol has partnered with a Chinese firm to set up a plant in northern China, authorities said. The plant will be capable of manufacturing 100 lightweight civil Mi-2A helicopters annually, the government and the company reported Monday. Construction of the plant, located near Beijing in Hebei Province, will be completed by the end of July, officials said, adding that the plant will also serve as a repair hub for Russia's Mi-series choppers in the Asian region, reported Xinhua. The investment for the first phase of the plant, spread across 47 hectares, was estimated at 1.4 billion yuan ($224 million), Rostvertol's Chinese partner Hebei Xi'Ao Aeroplane Manufacturing Co. Ltd. said on its ...
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Moscow, Russia may have to boost its nuclear potential in the future amid emerging nuclear proliferation threats, Anatoly Antonov, Russia's deputy defence minister and a negotiator on the European missile shield, said Monday. "New challenges emerge, including missile and nuclear proliferation. Look at how unstable the situation in the Middle East is. That's why Russia's military doctrine envisages the use of nuclear weapons in specific cases. I do not rule out that under certain circumstances we will have to boost, not cut, our nuclear arsenal," Antonov said in an interview with the Kommersant daily. He named the US missile shield in Europe as a main threat to Russia's security. "The situation is dismal in this area. The US continues to boost its missile defence potential in Europe and other regions. The European segment of the US missile defence demonstrates aspirations to shift the strategic balance of forces in Europe. After the Cold War, US strategic weapons - and missile defence is a strategic weapon - are getting closer to Russia's borders," Antonov said. He also confirmed that Russian and US missile defence talks have reached deadlock as US cooperation ...
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Moscow, The Russian government has announced awards of USD 130,000 to Russian athletes who win a gold medal at the 2012 London Olympics. The government announced Friday that silver medalists would receive USD 82,000, while bronze winners would get USD 56,000. The incentives are similar to those offered during the Vancouver Games in 2010, where Russia, a traditional winter sports powerhouse, delivered its most miserly medal haul in Olympic history, finishing 11th in the final standings with three gold, five silver and seven bronze. ...
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Moscow, Russia would make another attempt to send a Phobos-Grunt probe to Mars' satellite in 2018, a leading space expert has said. According to Lev Zeleny, director of the academy's Institute of Space Research, the probe would be named Phobos-Grunt-2. The plan was initiated by the Russian Academy of Sciences, Xinhua reported. Speaking at a press conference, Zeleny said 2018 was chosen because it would be the shortest distance between the Earth and Mars that year and that Russia's domestic space industry would also see a dramatic improvement by then. The second Phobos-Grunt would cost "a little more than 50 percent of previous costs," as the infrastructure was already in place from when they built the first probe, said Zeleny. As per specialists' estimate the crashed Phobos-Grunt interplanetary station, which failed to reach orbit after a computer malfunction and crashed back to Earth last month, cost five billion rubles (USD 164 million). The probe, carrying China's Yinghuo-1 satellite, had been launched Nov 9, 2011. It crashed Jan 15, 2012. On Tuesday, Vladimir Popovkin, the head of Russia's space agency said Russia would send another sample mission to the ...
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Moscow, Russia, which sent into space the first artificial satellite, the first man and the first woman, has now launched a competition to select new cosmonauts. State space agency Roscosmos Friday said interested candidates should apply with the Yuri Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Centre located in Star City, Moscow, reported RIA Novosti. A lucky few will be selected for cosmonaut training by a commission made up of representatives of the training centre, rocket and space corporation Energia and the Institute of Biomedical Problems. The Yuri Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Centre last year held a recruitment test for potential cosmonauts. Gagarin was a Soviet Air Force pilot. He was the first human to journey into outer space when his Vostok spacecraft completed an orbit of the Earth April 12, 1961. The first woman as well as the first civilian to fly into space, Valentina Tereshkova was selected out of more than 400 applicants to pilot the Vostok 6 in June 1963. The first artificial satellite Sputnik 1 launched by the erstwhile Soviet Union was put into Earth's orbit in October ...
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Moscow, The Russian Air Force is testing and will soon deploy an advanced tactical air-to-air missile that will greatly enhance its operational effectiveness, its commander Col. Gen Alexander Zelin said Tuesday. The missile will be carried by MiG-31 BM Foxhound supersonic interceptors/fighters and will subsequently be used by other warplanes, he said. The weapon is “currently in trial at an Air Force test site", Zelin said. He did not identify the missile but experts believe it could be the K-37M, a long-range air-to-air missile developed specifically for the MiG-31BM interceptor. It also known as RVV-BD, or AA-X-13 Arrow as it is known to NATO. ...
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Moscow, At least 17 people, including three children, died in separate fire incidents across Russia during New Year celebrations, local emergencies services said. Nine people died in three separate fires in the Republic of Buryatia in East Siberia, the regional emergencies centre reported. A 30-year-old woman, her one-year old daughter and son, aged 3, died in a fire that broke out in the village of Tsakir Sunday afternoon. The house was completely destroyed by the fire. The rescuers pulled the severely burnt bodies of the woman and her children from the rubble, the emergencies centre said. A woman and a man aged 56 were burned in a fire that erupted in the village of Kholtoson Sunday. Both were drunk when fire broke out, said the republic's chief fire safety inspector. Another four people, two women, a man and a three-year old child, died in a fire in Sharaldai on the night of Jan 1-2, the emergencies centre said. In all incidents, the local fire fighting services were informed about the fire with considerable delays, said the centre. Six people, including two children, died in a fire that erupted Monday in the town of Berezniki in the Perm Territory in the ...
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New Delhi, Hindus in Russia Wednesday posted a major victory in a hard-fought six-month legal battle as a Siberian court axed a plea seeking to ban the Bhagavad Gita and to brand the holy text "extremist" literature, even as hopes were expressed that the state prosecutors do not appeal against the verdict. During the final hearing in the Leninsky district court of Tomsk city, Federal Judge G.E. Butenko, in a one-line oral order, rejected the petition, saying he was not "pleased" with the prosecutors' plea, Sadhu Priya Das, a leader of the Russian unit of ISKCON, told IANS over phone from Moscow. "The court has dismissed the state prosecutors' case during the hearing today," Das said, adding that the detailed verdict will be made available only after a week. The court reviewed the state prosecutors' plea, report of an expert group on the Bhagavad Gita and the Hindu groups' arguments against the case before delivering the verdict, providing Hindus worldwide a reason to rejoice. The court did not hear the Russian human rights ombudsman as it did not feel this was necessary, Das added. The verdict triggered joyous and celebratory reactions from Krishna followers and ...
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Moscow, Russia successfully test-launched intercontinental ballistic missile -- RS-18 (SS-19 Stiletto) -- Tuesday from the Baikonur Space Centre in Kazakhstan, said the defence ministry. The missile is capable of carrying up to six warheads. "The goal of the test launch is to prove the stability and basic technical characteristics of missiles of this kind," said defence ministry spokesman Vadim Koval. Developed by the Chelomei Design Bureau, the RS-18 is a silo-based, liquid-propellant missile, which together with the RS-16 (SS-17) and RS-20 (SS-18) comprises the fourth generation of Russian strategic missiles. The Russian Strategic Missile Forces are considering the possibility of extending the RS-18 missiles' service term by one year to 33 years, he added. A source in Russia's defence industry said RS-18 missiles are currently used to test advanced warheads designed to penetrate missile defences. ...
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Minsk, Belarus will dispatch nuclear waste from a soon-to-be-built atomic power plant for recycling in Russia, a top official said. Alexander Mikhalevich, deputy academic secretary of the National Academy of Sciences, said it made no economic sense to establish nuclear waste treatment facilities in Belarus. "Russia boasts efficient nuclear waste recycling technologies. Therefore, nuclear waste from the future nuclear plant will be dispatched there," Mikhalevich was quoted as saying by Xinhua. A planned nuclear power plant near Ostrovets is due to start operations in 2018. Russia will offer Belarus a loan of up to USD 10 billion for construction of the plant. Mikhalevich said the nuclear waste treatment was aimed at obtaining undecomposed uranium and valuable isotopes that can be used ...
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Moscow, Russia has criticised UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon for defending the NATO operation in Libya and ignoring data on civilian casualties collected by a number of UN member states. Ban came to the defence of NATO in response to charges that the alliance overstepped its mandate to impose a no-fly zone to protect Libyan civilians and instead openly sided with the rebels, enabling them to overthrow Muammar Gaddafi's regime. "UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon's statements that the alliance's actions in Libya were conducted in strict accordance with the UN Security Council resolution 1973, directly contradict the facts and are at odds with the estimates of many members of the Security Council and other UN members," said Russian foreign ministry spokesman Alexander Lukashevich. He said Ban must "take into account the positions of all the UN members, especially when the issue concerns sensitive events on the global agenda". Ban's attempt to present "the operation in Libya as a model for future crisis resolution is cynical to say the least", Lukshevich added. Russia has urged NATO to investigate civilian deaths in Libya from its bombing campaign, saying the ...
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Moscow, Russia will become one of the best countries for business within the next 10 years, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin has said. "We need to outline a quite clear goal - to become one of the world's leading countries with the best conditions for entrepreneurial activity within ten years," Putin said Wednesday at a congress of Business Russia, a national association of business groups. "This is a very difficult task, because it is rather hard to eradicate and wipe out corruption, which, unfortunately, is part of the culture, or its absence," the prime minister said. Putin said Russia needs a "real breakthrough in all elements of the national investment climate", adding that on some investment climate criteria, the country is "at the tail-end of global ratings". Russia moved up four positions, to 120th place from 124th, according to Doing Business 2012, an annual report compiled by the World Bank and the International Finance Corporation, which was published in ...
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