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Olympic attention moved from Canada to the...

Olympic attention moved from Canada to the former Soviet republic of Georgia as luger Nodar Kumaritashvili was buried in his hometown of Bakuriani.


MOSCOW, November 19 (RIA Novosti) - Russia"s...

MOSCOW, November 19 (RIA Novosti) - Russia"s Central Bank has cut its investment in bonds with U.S. mortgage agencies Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac from $65.6 billion to $20.9 billion as of November 1, the bank"s chairman said on Wednesday."The amount of Bank of Russia investments has decreased as the securities have been repaid," Sergei Ignatyev said, speaking in Russia"s lower house of parliament. The banker said the U.S. Treasury move that saw both mortgage agencies come under U.S. government conservatorship in September 2008 guaranteed that they would honor their financial commitments. The Central Bank was not currently selling Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac bonds, nor had it signed any new deals with either of the two mortgage financiers, Ignatyev said. Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin earlier said bonds held by the Central Bank in the two U.S. mortgage giants yielded over $1 billion in the first half of 2008. The U.S. government-sponsored firms, which together own or guarantee $5 trillion in U.S. mortgage debt or almost 40% of the market, were taken over by a federal regulator early in September to prevent their possible collapse amid the growing credit crunch. Freddie Mac, the second-largest U.S. residential mortgage financier, asked the U.S. Treasury last Friday to provide $13.8 billion after posting third-quarter losses of $25.3 billion.


Russia"s women"s hockey team enjoyed its...

Russia"s women"s hockey team enjoyed its first win in the preliminaries during the Winter Olympics in Vancouver, beating the Chinese 2:1.

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The United States will allocate $7 billion...

"We will spend what is necessary to maintain the safety, security and effectiveness of our weapons," Biden said in the article, entitled The President"s Nuclear Vision.

He said the U.S. intended to boost funding for "these important activities", intended to "ensure our security" by more than $5 billion over the next five years.

"Even in a time of tough budget decisions, these are investments we must make for our security. We are committed to working with Congress to ensure these budget increases are approved," the vice president said.

Biden said the country"s nuclear facilities have been "underfunded and undervalued" for almost a decade and required "urgent attention."

"The consequences of this neglect-like the growing shortage of skilled nuclear scientists and engineers and the aging of critical facilities-have largely escaped public notice," he said.

U.S. President Barack Obama reiterated on Wednesday his pledge to work toward comprehensive nuclear

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