Iran’s embassy in Moscow says a Russian warship has freed eight Iranians who were seized along with suspected Somali pirates last week.

A gas explosion tore through a Siberian apartment block early Sunday and sparked a fire that engulfed the building, killing eight people, including two children, Russian media reported.

European workers feeling the pinch of the economic crisis rallied at May Day protests Friday from Moscow to Berlin to Istanbul.

Workers rallied Friday in European cities to mark May Day, with tens of thousands of demonstrators across Russia supporting or slamming the government amid growing unemployment and economic troubles.

Russia signed a deal with Georgia’s two breakaway regions Thursday giving Moscow the power to guard their borders.

Kremlin opponent Garry Kasparov attended the trial of onetime billionaire Mikhail Khodorkovsky on Wednesday, getting in a brief, heated exchange with one of the Russian prosecutors during a recess.

Russian news agencies, citing the nation’s Defense Ministry, say a Russian warship has seized a vessel with 29 suspected pirates on board off the coast of Somalia.

Russia widened a ban Tuesday on meat imports from Mexico and some U.S. states, prompting objections from the United States, which noted that eating meat has nothing to do with getting swine flu.

Russian news agencies cite one of the country’s deputy defense ministers as saying that more that 35,000 officers are to be fired in 2009 as part of sweeping military reforms.

The Bolshoi Theater has announced the death of legendary Russian ballerina Ekaterina Maximova.