Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn, the head of the Defense Intelligence Agency, tells NPR that U.S. decision-makers were given a week's notice that some Russian action was likely.
The demand for Russia's high-value timber is fueling organized crime, government corruption and illegal logging. The hardwood often ends up as flooring and furniture in the United States, Europe, Japan and China.
One Siberian city is tackling the problem of drug-resistant tuberculosis with a health program affectionately named for an earlier Russian innovation. In the modern Sputnik program, teams of nurses travel around the sprawling city of Tomsk, finding and treating the TB patients who are the hardest to reach.
The sights and sounds across Russia's Ural Mountains on Friday as a meteor came roaring in were awesome. There are reports of more than 900 people being injured, most when windows shattered. But European Space Agency experts say there's no connection to the large asteroid that's whizzing past Earth later in the day.