Natasha Pakhtesova dipped a spoon into her traditional Russian red beet salad, looked up to the sky and sighed.

It didn’t take long for Russian sisters Tatiana and Ekatarina to settle into the routine at Amy Aubry’s Gilbert home.

The girl of a Scottsdale family’s dreams lives in a condemned building in Russia with no running water, broken windows and a coal stove.

Naming herself after the provincial flower of Alberta, Canada, Loca Rosa is a performer with international flair.

ALMATY, Kazakhstan - A leading Kazakh writer has nominated actor Sacha Baron Cohen for a national award for popularizing Kazakhstan. Novelist Sapabek Asip-uly called on the Kazakh Club of Art Patrons to give Baron Cohen its annual award, according to a letter published by the Vremya newspaper Thursday.

One bit of unfinished business remaining from the formal dissolution of the Soviet Union was what to do with Vladimir Lenin, the architect of that unlamented 74-year excursion into totalitarianism.

In one classroom, children learned a traditional Greek dance. In the next they learned a little English history.

In one classroom, children learned a traditional Greek dance. In the next they learned a little English history.

In one classroom, children learned a traditional Greek dance. In the next they learned a little English history.

Two years ago, Joan Knipe and Steve Pettyjohn adopted Ruslan, 11, an orphaned boy from Russia. Ruslan’s 20-yearold sister, Olga Lukinova, signed papers allowing the Scottsdale couple to adopt him.

May 5, 2005

March 2, 2005

Scottsdale’s plans to build a Western museum downtown were scrapped again as officials with the Buffalo Bill Historical Center announced Tuesday they will not establish a branch here.

MUNICH - NATO's top official chastised Germany and France for refusing to commit more troops to Afghanistan, but the two European powers skirted the issue Saturday even while agreeing that Washington should not be left to fight international conflicts alone.

May 10, 2005

MOSCOW - Mstislav Rostropovich, the renowned cellist and conductor who won world fame for his masterly playing and his courage in defending human rights, was buried Sunday in the Moscow cemetery that holds the graves of many of Russia's most luminous artists and thinkers.

LONDON - Production of pirated recordings of music increased by 14 percent last year and now account for a third of all CDs sold around the globe, an industry group reported Thursday.

Family, faith and suffering are resonant chords in the symphony of life and harmonizing themes for countless plays and musicals. “Fiddler on the Roof,” the story of Jewish community and tradition in turn-of-the-century Tsarist Russia, is the iconic example.

Check out these East Valley weekend activities for the whole family.

It’s almost 8 p.m. on a Thursday, but Steve Barber’s classroom at Desert Mountain High School in Scottsdale isn’t empty. A woman dressed in a pink embroidered pantsuit stands in front of a dozen students, drawing Chinese characters on the board, and students such as Stephenie Evanuska, 17, take a stab at pronouncing each word.

It’s almost 8 p.m. on a Thursday, but Steve Barber’s classroom at Desert Mountain High School in Scottsdale isn’t empty. A woman dressed in a pink embroidered pantsuit stands in front of a dozen students, drawing Chinese characters on the board, and students such as Stephenie Evanuska, 17, take a stab at pronouncing each word.