Russian village's tightrope walking prowess
228361
TSOVKRA-1, Russia  - By a quirk of history that goes so far back in time no one really remembers it, nearly every man, woman and child in the remote mountain village of Tsovkra-1 can walk the tightrope.
348802
By Rosemary Shinohara, Anchorage Daily News, Alaska  Feb. 17--After a year of politicking and hard work, Spenard residents who fought to shrink a city road project that threatened to change the character of their neighborhood are getting most of what they asked for.
230861
Blog: In a tiny mountain town, progress means that the general store is right next door to a place for disconnected travelers to chop off a little piece of the Internet.
463605
MOSCOW -- Russia's tycoons, whose flamboyant spending has ka-chinged from Mediterranean isles to London's Mayfair district, have found a new use for their supersize wallets: philanthropic foundations.
745877
For children in the village on Russia&#39;s southern fringe,  after-school games means balancing on a wire suspended one  storey above the ground.
409880
DEMIDYV, Ukraine -- Nikolai maneuvered his bike through the ruts in a dirt road and shook his head in disgust. ''Can you call this a civilized country with roads like this?&quot; he said after swerving to avoid a deep mud puddle.
429839
For decades, pilgrims to Red Square have first passed in the shadow of the stolid Moskva hotel and the elegant Manezh exhibition hall. Once they made it across the square's cobblestoned expanse, they found their view obscured by the modernist concrete hulk known as the Hotel Rossiya.
100075
ELISTA, Russia -- Life is not all smooth sailing for Kirsan Ilyumzhinov, the flamboyant leader of the remote Russian republic of Kalmykia.
486154
A railroad deal will soon link the ex-Soviet outpost to European markets.
123234
BANSKO, Bulgaria  - The citizens of Bansko, a ski resort in Bulgaria's Pirin mountains, are selling their land with gusto to buy fancy cars and replace communist-era furniture.
644681
Nestled in cellars tunneled deep into a Crimean mountainside, they survived revolution, war and decades of communism.
505415
In one of this city's relatively posh neighborhoods, there is a compound full of specialists.
597840
Life & style: Alexander Linklater:  Speaking was, for him, like walking a tightrope, only to discover, halfway along, that your laces were untied.
443544
JINCE, Czech Republic  - Once a frontline Soviet base, the Brdy military complex could host part of a planned U.S. anti-missile shield and local residents feel they are back in the firing line.
573963
Smart cars purr along the  streets of Moscow and French chefs run glitzy restaurants in  thriving Russian mining towns, but in the impoverished regions  of Ingushetia and Dagestan people live on a few dollars a day.
267645
MOSCOW -- She survived three days as a hostage and the destruction of the school where she has passed nearly all of her 72-year life. Now Lydia Tsaliyeva is heading home, and her life may be in danger all over again. This time, however, the threat comes from her neighbors.
753706
PEREDELKINO, Russia -- The unpaved, unlit roads are clogged with traffic. Getting to and from work in the center of Moscow is a 90-minute crawl each way. The schools are lousy. There are no stores within walking distance. Local healthcare facilities are primitive.