Nikolayev, Ukraine News

PAVEL Popovich, who in August 1962 became the fourth cosmonaut - and eighth person - to orbit the Earth, has died following a brain haemorrhage at Gurzuf, a resort city on Ukraine's Crimean Peninsula.

Pavel Popovich, the sixth man to go into orbit and fourth Soviet cosmonaut to go to space, has died at a sanatorium at the age of 79, space officials said.

Ukraine's former premier, Viktor Yanukovych, who now heads an opposition party, proposed on Saturday finishing the construction of a missile cruiser stalled for almost 15 years now jointly with Russia.

The Russian Navy has denied media speculation that the Moskva missile cruiser, the flagship of the Black Sea Fleet, needed repairs at a shipyard after a recent incident on board.

The City Council of Nikolayev has won the litigation for the fight to use the Russian language in official documents.

The Moscow Times was the only newspaper represented at the Russian-American Business Summit, which participated in by Dmitry Medvedev and Barak Obama On 7 July 2009 The Moscow Times published a special full colour issue of the newspaper, timed to coincide with the visit of Barak Obama to Moscow.