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Russian suicidal chicken hangs itself on a fence (pic) A chicken killed itself on the fence of one of the village residents in the Tula region of Russia. An eyewitness of the unimaginable bird suicide says that he was resting on a couch, when his wife rushed into the house and said that a chicken had just committed suicide by hanging itself on the neighbor's fence. When then man came out to have a look at what was happening, he saw a chicken hanging on the fence indeed. The chicken was apparently trying to fly over the fence, but did...

Russia said Friday it would help Ukraine overcome grain shortages by supplying up to 200,000 metric tons of grain this month to its neighbor, where output is likely to plunge to a record low due to bad weather. Agriculture Minister Alexei Gordeyev, speaking after talks with Ukrainian Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych, said Russia would supply the grain this month. Russia's crop is also expected to be sharply lower this year. Yanukovych said deliveries from Russia might reach 1 million tons in September. It was unclear how much the grain would cost, but Gordeyev said delivery prices would not exceed Ukraine's...

Manufacturing continued an upturn in March, led by a growth in new orders and stronger output, suggesting the economy was on track to again expand over 4 percent this year, Moscow Narodny Bank said Tuesday. The Manufacturing Purchasing Managers' Index, based on a poll of 300 purchasing managers, rose to a seasonally adjusted 51.3 in March, its highest level in five months. The index is designed to give a snapshot of manufacturing conditions. A reading above 50, which is considered a no-change mark, indicates a rise on the previous month. The index firmed marginally to 50.3 in February from...

Ruble Rising MOSCOW (Reuters) -- The ruble rose to a 10-month high against the dollar Tuesday as the Central Bank stopped mopping up extra oil dollars to brake the gains of the local currency. The ruble rose 6.26 kopeks in official early trade to a weighted average for settlement today of 31.3175 to the dollar from 31.3801 on Monday, the Central Bank's preferred rate since the middle of March. The bank, which holds a tight grip on the market, has been keeping the ruble flat against the dollar to calm the market unnerved by the U.S.-led military assault on...

Consumerism is accelerating at such a rapid pace that it's hard to keep track of all the companies capitalizing on the trend. But the compilers of a new reference guide for the consumer market hope to change all that -- and attract the interest of foreign investors in the process. On Tuesday, Interactive Research Group unveiled a 250-page breakdown of the 100 most promising domestic players in the sector. Notably absent were some of the most recognizable names in business, such as MTS, Baltika and Wimm-Bill-Dann. "We are very unhappy that the foreign press in Russia only seems to...

When 14-year-old Timofei Borodin started doing algorithmic programming six years ago as an extracurricular activity in his hometown of Kostroma in central Russia, he had no idea how far the hobby would take him. Last week Borodin became one of six Russian students to win gold medals at the Association for Computing Machinery's International Collegiate Programming Contest in Beverly Hills, California. Borodin's gold medal means even more to Russia's information technology community, which sees the winners as a new generation of programmers for the country's still-rudimentary industry. "It shows the strengths of the Russian system of higher education and...

The number of ministries and other federal bodies with similar powers would be slashed from 56 to 15 or 17 under a plan being drafted by the Economic Development and Trade Ministry, the ministry said Tuesday. A proposal to dissolve at least three governmental bodies has already been forwarded to the Cabinet, Economic Development and Trade Deputy Minister Mikhail Dmitriyev was quoted by news agencies as saying. The ministry refused to name the three federal bodies it wants to eliminate or even identify whether they are ministries, committees, agencies, services or inspectorates -- the five main classifications of federal...