UKRAINE

Kseniya Simonova is a Ukrainian artist who was crowned as the winner of the show, uses a giant light box, dramatic music, imagination and

Russian leaders are stuck in their imperial past and seem to relish bullying and threatening their neighbors, a senior Ukrainian official said on Wednesday, responding to a tirade from Moscow the previous day.

President Dmitry Medvedev on Monday proposed legislation to give him the legal basis to send troops abroad to defend Russia's interests, the Kremlin said.

Hungarian drug producer Richter Gedeon said its second-quarter net profit more than doubled on rising sales, especially to Russia and the United States, muted cost growth and a smaller-than-expected loss.

At Microsoft's research center in a leafy lane in India's tech capital, a new generation of researchers are being groomed half a world away from the software giant's sprawling headquarters in Seattle.

President Dmitry Medvedev will defend a Russia-backed deal to buy German car maker Opel and seek more support for the Nord Stream gas pipeline project when he visits Munich on Thursday, a top Kremlin aide said.

Ukraine and Russia began talks with international lenders and the European Union on Monday on loans to help Kiev pay for Russian gas and avert a new crisis that could cut off supplies to Europe.

Flying to Kiev from Riga was exceptionally pleasant. Air Baltic offered a free lunch with wine - practically unheard of in Europe these days. (Fares are often dirt-cheap and food is not included).

Russian oil company Tatneft said its net profit rose 25 percent year-on-year in the first quarter as lower costs and taxes helped offset a 32.6 percent fall in revenues.

The World Bank announced it has approved a $125 million loan to the Republic of Belarus for a project meant to improve energy efficiency in heat and power generation.

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev challenged EU leaders at a summit on Friday to help Ukraine pay its gas bills in order to prevent disruption of Russian supplies to Europe.

The head of the Russian deposit insurance agency head said on Friday the share of non-performing loans may climb to 20 percent by the end of 2009 -- the gloomiest forecast from officials to-date.

Japan's power firms paid a combined 100.1 billion yen, or $1 billion, for carbon credits in the year that ended on March 31, their annual earnings reports showed, giving investors a rare glimpse into how much utilities are spending to offset their own carbon emissions.

Europe has squandered the opportunity created by the fall of the Berlin Wall 20 years ago for a new era of cooperation between East and West, former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev said on Wednesday.

Accused Nazi death camp guard John Demjanjuk arrived from the United States Tuesday to face charges he helped kill 29,000 Jews in 1943, and what is likely to be Germany's last major Nazi trial.

The International Monetary Fund has corrected an outstanding error for some eastern European countries because of wrong data.

Europe's energy networks will receive a 4-billion-euro ($5.3 billion) upgrade to make them more robust and flexible in future energy crises following a vote in the European Union assembly on Wednesday.

Mexico said a new flu virus has killed up to 149 people and it ordered all schools to close across the country on Monday as the disease spread in the United States, Canada and Europe, raising fears of a pandemic.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) will release a new $2.8 billion loan to Ukraine to help the country weather the economic crisis., official said on Friday.

Stronger emerging economies are likely to pull further ahead from weaker peers following the moves by global leaders to augment the lending capacity of the International Monetary Fund.

Dutch ING plans to sell operations worth up to 8 billion euros ($10.6 billion) to reduce risk, focus its bank on Europe, and manage its banking and insurance separately, boosting its shares on Thursday.