Rescuers on Saturday recovered the bodies of two US pilots whose refuelling plane crashed in the mountains of Kyrgyzstan shortly after taking off from a base that serves as a hub for military operations in Afghanistan.
President Barack Obama stepped up pressure on Russia over Syria on Monday, telling President Vladimir Putin of his concern about the reported use of chemical weapons by the Damascus regime.
Thirty-eight people, mostly psychiatric patients, were killed in a fire that raged Friday at a psychiatric hospital in the Moscow region, trapping the inmates inside behind barred windows.
Vladimir Putin called for greater anti-terror cooperation with the US and defended his economic policies against a background of rising discontent, in the first nationwide phone-in of his new Kremlin term.