Official says there's no need to rethink safety measures for Sochi Winter Olympics despite bombings in Russia.

Two New Zealanders who spent two months in a Russian prison following a protest at an Arctic oil platform have returned home.

Two Kiwis who were among a group of Greenpeace protesters arrested for hooliganism by Russian authorities, are expected home in the next few days.

It's not unusual, of course, for the Olympics and politics to become intertwined. But it is quite a while since the impact has been so pronounced.

Charges against 29 Greenpeace activists, including two Kiwis, who faced prison in Russia have been dropped following a Kremlin amnesty.

A group of Greenpeace activists, including two New Zealanders, are trying to stay realistic over their chances of being home for Christmas, after the Russian parliament backed an amnesty bill to drop charges against them.

President Vladimir Putin cast Russia as a defender of conservative values against the "genderless and infertile" Western tolerance that he said equates good and evil.

Time magazine has named Pope Francis its person of the year, saying that in nine months in office the head of the Catholic Church had become a new voice of conscience.

Pro-European demonstrators toppled the statute of Lenin, the founder of the Soviet Union, from its plinth in central Kiev as record numbers flooded the city streets.

French luxury brand Louis Vuitton has been ordered to remove a giant trunk put up on Moscow's iconic Red Square after it triggered outrage among some Russians.

Anyone who switched on Russian TV recently might have been forgiven for thinking the Kremlin was relaxing its hard line on gays: Images of rainbow flags and a happy same-sex couple looking adoringly at their child flashed across the screen.

One of the two New Zealand Greenpeace protesters jailed in Russia on hooliganism charges has been told he will be released on bail.

Within five seconds, a dot of light that Russian authorities say is a Boeing 737 appears in the sky over the tarmac and plunges to the ground in a near-vertical crash.

A Russian passenger airliner 'hit the runway and burst into flames' near Kazan this morning, killing 50 people - but officials say no children were among the dead.

Pop legend Madonna has joined a chorus of international stars in urging the release of 30 Greenpeace crew members jailed after a protest against energy prospecting in the Arctic.

Relatives of two Greenpeace activists detained with 28 others in Russia over an Arctic oil drilling protest have told of their heartbreak over their extended detention.

The 30 people arrested following a Greenpeace protest at a Russian oil rig in the Arctic have been transferred to St. Petersburg, Greenpeace International and Russian transport officials said.

A Russian performance artist nailed his genitals to the ground outside Moscow's Red Square in protest over Russia's "police state" as the country marked national police day.

The European Space Agency says one of its research satellites re-entered the Earth's atmosphere on an orbit that passed over Siberia, the western Pacific Ocean, the eastern Indian Ocean and Antarctica.

A one-tonne satellite operated by the European Space Agency has run out of fuel and will fall back to Earth in an unknown location sometime in the next few days.