YAHOO/AFP: Medvedev orders large-scale Russian rearmament

MOSCOW (AFP) – President Dmitry Medvedev on Tuesday announced a "large-scale" rearmament and renewal of Russia's nuclear arsenal, accusing NATO of pushing ahead with expansion near Russian borders.

Meeting defence chiefs in Moscow, Medvedev said he was determined to implement reforms to streamline Russia's bloated military and stressed Moscow continued to face several security threats needing robust defense capacity.

"From 2011, a large-scale rearmament of the army and navy will begin," Medvedev said.

YAHOO/AP: Russia, Ukraine sign gas deal, end standoff

MOSCOW – Russia and Ukraine signed a deal Monday that restores natural gas shipments to Ukraine and paves the way for an end to the nearly two-week cutoff of most Russian gas to a freezing Europe.

The agreement was signed by the heads of Russia's state-run natural gas monopoly Gazprom and the Ukraine's gas company Naftogaz. The signing was witnessed by Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian counterpart Yulia Tymoshenko.

CHICAGO TRIBUNE: Russian hackers target U.S., Europe for profit and politics

MOSCOW—Not long ago, the simple, anonymous thrill of exposing chinks in American software was enough of a payoff for a Russian hacker.

Today it's cash. And almost all the targets are in the United States and Europe, where Russia's notorious hackers pilfer online bank accounts, swipe social security numbers, steal credit card data and peek at e-mail log-ins and passwords as part of what some estimate to be a $100 billion-a-year global cyber-crime business.

And when it's not money that drives Russian hackers, it's politics—with the aim of accessing or disabling the computers, Web sites and security systems of governments opposed to Russian interests. That may have been the motive behind a recent attack on Pentagon computers.

AP: Officials: 17 dead in Ukraine apartment gas blast

KIEV, Ukraine (AP) — An explosion tore through an apartment building in southern Ukraine, killing at least 17 people and leaving dozens more trapped under the rubble, emergency officials said Thursday.

Up to 700 rescuers were searching for survivors in the wreckage of the collapsed five-story building in the Crimea peninsula resort of Yevpatoriya after a blast Wednesday caused by a suspected gas leak, the Emergency Situations Ministry said.

EMERCON: The Russian FEMA?

Some interesting information on EMERCON. EMERCON is somewhat equivalent to FEMA.

EMERCOM or The Ministry of the Emergency Situations (Russian: Министерство по чрезвычайным ситуациям - МЧС России) was established on January 10, 1994 by President Boris Yeltsin. The complete official designation is Ministry of the Russian Federation for Affairs of Civil Defence, Emergencies and Disaster Relief (Russian: Министерство России по делам гражданской обороны, чрезвычайным ситуациям и ликвидации последствий стихийных бедствий). Some consider the real date of birth of the agency as December 27, 1990, when the Russian Rescue Corps was established and assigned the mission of rapid response in the case of emergencies. (From Wikipedia)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EMERCOM

http://www.fas.org/nuke/guide/russia/agency/rusert.htm

http://www.mchs.gov.ru/ (Official site in Russian)