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DNA Tests Confirm IDs of Russian Tsar's ChildrenMike Eckel in Moscow, Russia Associated PressApril 30, 2008 DNA tests carried out by a U.S. laboratory prove that remains exhumed last year belong to two children of Tsar Nicholas II, putting to rest questions about what happened to Russia's last royal family, a regional governor said Wednesday. The bone fragments dug up are those of Crown Prince Alexei and his sister, Maria, whose remains had been missing since the family was murdered in 1918 as Russia descended into civil war, said Eduard Rossel, governor of the Sverdlovsk region (see map of Russia)....

MOSCOW (Reuters) - The leader of Russia's Communist Party accused President Vladimir Putin on Saturday of piling up vast powers and said the Kremlin's main party represented billionaires rather than ordinary people. "He (President Vladimir Putin) has more power today than the Pharaoh of Egypt, the Tsar, and the Soviet Union's General Secretary combined," veteran Communist leader Gennady Zyuganov told a party congress on the outskirts of Moscow. "He has four times more power than the quite powerful president of the United States," said Zyuganov, whose party is the country's number two political force with 162,000 members. Zyuganov said his...

Russian journalist Anna Politkovskaya, an outspoken critic of President Vladimir Putin, was shot dead on Saturday at her apartment block in central Moscow, police said. "According to initial information she was killed by two shots when leaving the lift. Neighbors found her body," a police source told Reuters. Police found a pistol and four rounds in the lift. Politkovskaya, a 48-year-old mother of two, won international fame and numerous prizes for her dogged pursuit of rights abuses by Putin's government, particularly in the violent southern province of Chechnya. "The first thing that comes to mind is that Anna was killed...

Energy tsars hungry for a new market (Filed: 26/03/2006) The Chinese President, Hu Jintao, has lobbied Vladimir Putin hard for the planned £6.5 billion East Siberian Pacific Pipeline, on which work is due to begin this year, to include a spur to the Chinese border. If opened as planned in 2008, the main pipeline will pump up to 1.6 million barrels of oil a day to the Pacific port of Nakhodka. Last week, China's National Petroleum Corporation offered to pay Transneft, the company building the pipeline, £228 million to cover the costs of a branch. China is a leading buyer...