Chita

Four times weekly service from Moscow-Chita-Moscow started on 27 October.

Famous as a place of exile in Tsarist and Soviet times, it could now gets its first international class hotel.

Brown coal in disused Soviet deposit burning at a temperature as high as 600C.

Symptoms suspected in seven cows at farm in Zabaikalsky region.

Yet nickel capital Norilsk - the city with the highest industrial emissions - does not feature in the top ten.

Heavy rains engulf TransBaikal region with a dozen railway bridges destroyed and 15 more damaged.

Fears over highly toxic rocket propellant after Baikonur launch failure.

At least 90 left homeless in one village after raging infernos, say reports.

Calls for action against homeless dogs provokes backlash from animal rights campaigners.