Moscow

MOSCOW - It began with a plea from a desperate husband, and turned into a mystery that played out on the Russian Internet and captivated the public during the early days of the new year. On Jan. 6, the eve of Russia's Orthodox Christmas, popular blogger and Moscow cafe owner Alexei Kabanov posted word on his Facebook page informing his almost 1,500 friends and more than 450 followers that his 39-year-old wife, journalist Irina Cherska, had disappeared three days earlier. "To make the situation clear, I will say that she left after a quarrel," wrote the 38-year-old professional chef.

If you've got a moment, you've got just enough time for “A Minute Away,” a new video offering from the Travel section. This week's destination is sleepy little June Lake , Calif., about 20 miles from the Mammoth Mountain ski resort. You may have seen this one here before, but it's 60 seconds of bliss that bears repeating. Last week's Minute, the first of the series, was Moscow in a snow storm. Whether you click June Lake or Moscow , you get a little slice of wordless, brain-cleansing, off-the-clock atmosphere.

MOSCOW - Russia is sending two airplanes to evacuate scores of its citizens from longtime ally Syria, Moscow said Monday, in the latest signal that the Kremlin may be preparing for the collapse of President Bashar Assad's government. The airplanes will fly to neighboring Lebanon on Tuesday and transport more than 100 people back to Russia, a spokeswoman for the Russian Emergency Situations Ministry told Russian media. The evacuees are reportedly mostly women and children. Russia has already disclosed contingency plans for a massive naval evacuation of thousands of its nationals living in Syria.

It's another round of legal woes for the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow: One of its top dancers is suing the company to annul two reprimands he received for talking to the media. Following an acid attack on the Bolshoi's artistic director, Segei Filin, Nikolai Tsiskaridze, 39, publicly criticized the company's general director and called for the removal of theater executives. The Georgian-born dancer petitioned a Moscow court Tuesday to annul the reprimands, which could lead to his dismissal.

Veteran network correspondent Sam Jaffe, who was forced to spend the final years of his life denying that he was a Soviet spy, is dead of cancer. Jaffe was 55 when he died Friday at his home in Bethesda, Md., a suburb of Washington. Jaffe had been a correspondent for Life magazine and CBS before joining ABC television in 1960.

If you go THE BEST WAY TO MOSCOW From LAX, Air France, KLM, Lufthansa, Delta, British and Swiss offer connecting service (change of planes) to Moscow. Restricted round-trip fares begin at $602. TELEPHONES To call the numbers below from the U.S., dial 011 (the international dialing code), 7 (country code for Russia), 495 (the Moscow area code) and the local number. WHERE TO STAY Godzillas Hostel, 6 Bolshoi Karetnyy, Moscow; (495) 699-4223, www.godzillas hostel.

THE BEST WAY TO MOSOW From LAX, nonstop service to Moscow is available on Aeroflot and connecting service (change of planes) is offered on KLM, Air France, Delta, Turkish, British, Swiss and Lufthansa. Restricted round-trip fares begin at $778, including taxes and fees. U.S. citizens must have a Russian visa. TELEPHONES To call the numbers below from the U.S., dial 011 (the international dialing code), 7 (country code for Russia), 495/499 (Moscow area code) or 812 (St. Petersburg area code)

The suicide bombs that roared through Moscow subway cars Monday were almost certainly the latest salvo in a slow-moving war of attrition between the Russian government and militants in the restive, mostly Muslim republics of the Caucasus. Vladimir Putin has been trading blows with southern rebels ever since he rose to the presidency a decade ago. At times, violence has threatened to erode the social contract he's struck with the Russian public: Forgo some democratic rights in exchange for, above all, stability.

Hewlett-Packard Co., the world's largest PC and printer maker, said it's cooperating with Russian and German authorities after its Moscow offices were searched Wednesday in a possible bribery investigation. German prosecutors are investigating possible corruption linked to its 35 million euro ($47.5 million) sale of computers to Russia about seven years ago. They are examining whether the company paid bribes to win the contract, said Wolfgang Klein, a spokesman at Saxony's Chief Prosecutor's Office.

You can fly round trip from LAX to Moscow on Transaero Airlines for $741, including all taxes and fees but subject to availability, for travel between Oct. 1 and April 30. You must stay over a Saturday night. Nonstop flights are available for travel Thursdays and Sundays in October and Sundays between November and March. Info: Transaero Airlines , (877) 747-1191 Source: Airfarewatchdog

The street artist known as the “Russian Banksy,” Pasha P183, has been found dead in Moscow, according to reports. He was 29. Teatralnoye Delo theatrical production company, which had commissioned the artist to create a mural for its production "Todd,” said he died Monday, the Associated Press reported. Teatralnoye Delo did not release further information. PHOTOS: Arts and culture in pictures by The Times Pasha P183 was known for leaving artistic installations and politically fueled murals across Moscow, including riot police painted on subway doors and a masked protester holding a flare that caught fire.

MOSCOW -- Russia charged Friday that the latest U.S. push to aid the Syrian opposition promotes "extremists" who have no interest in peace talks and are determined to seize power through force. The comments come a day after U.S. Secretary State John F. Kerry, speaking in Rome, pledged tens of millions of dollars in nonlethal assistance to Syrian dissidents but turned away opposition calls for direct military aid to rebels fighting to oust President Bashar Assad. "The decisions taken in Rome and also the statements that were voiced there both in spirit and literally encourage the extremists to take power by force regardless of would-be inevitable suffering of ordinary Syrians," Foreign Ministry spokesman Alexander Lukashevich said in a statement published on the ministry's website.

After a tense decade of air raid sirens, duck-and-cover drills and fears of Soviet superiority, hope for America came in an unlikely form in the late 1950s: a lanky, 23-year-old Texan with a head full of curls and huge hands that ranged across a piano keyboard with virtuosic power. With his transcendent performances of Tchaikovsky's First and Rachmaninoff's Third piano concertos, Van Cliburn brought 1,500 Russians to their feet in a Moscow concert hall. Declared the victor of the first International Tchaikovsky Competition, the young American became a hero of the Cold War era and an object of adoration around the world, whose fame helped bring classical music to the masses.

WASHINGTON - Top finance officials of the world's 20 largest economies sought Saturday to allay fear of a currency war, pledging not to target exchange rates to gain a competitive advantage in trade. But the joint statement, issued at the end of a meeting in Moscow of the so-called Group of 20, or G-20, did not single out any country, essentially giving a pass to Japan to keep pursuing its economic policies despite a significant slide in the value of the yen since November. Japan's new government under Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who will meet with President Obama this week in Washington, had been talking down the yen and has pressed its central bank for more expansive monetary stimulus to break out of its deflationary trap and boost the nation's stagnant economy.

For the ninth consecutive year, Moscow hotels ranked as the most expensive in the world for business travelers, followed by Lagos, Nigeria, and New York City. The ranking, based on an annual survey by U.K.-based Hogg Robinson Group, a travel, expense and data management firm, concluded that hotel rates around the globe grew by an average of 1.4% last year, compared to a 1% increase in 2011. (In the U.S., hotel rates jumped 4.2% in 2012, to an average of $106 per night, according to STR, formerly known as Smith Travel Research.)

For more than six centuries, Russian artists basically painted one thing: icons, in nearly infinite variation, often with inspiring (or haunting) skill. So when you come to Moscow, where I am now, and step into the various cathedrals within the Kremlin walls, what do you see? Icons. Then you move on to the old and new Tretyakov Gallery , which is really a museum and to Russian masterworks from the last 10 centuries or so. And there, besides a bunch more icons, you get to see what happened when the Russians decided to start painting portraits and landscapes.

The great thing about visiting Moscow from Los Angeles is you don't have to reset your watch. It's a 12-hour time difference, so all you have to do is think about the time in a different way. Of course, winter in Russia is a little bit different from winter in Southern California. As the sun sets on Moscow, it's 7 degrees below zero and your guide is giving thanks for the mild weather. "It was 20 below zero last night," one local told me when I arrived Tuesday. "Be careful of icicles," said another.

MOSCOW - They have discovered a world where no rules or laws apply, where they can be heroes, if only for a few terrifying minutes. They are skywalkers, or roofers, as they proudly call themselves. The craze, which is believed to have started a few years back with a couple of young Russians, now has hundreds of followers here and thousands of others around the globe. It works this way: The roofers climb a skyscraper, a construction crane, a tall monument, a tower or a bridge.