The Indian authorities have finalized the Rafale fighter of Dassault Aviation for its $10.4 billion medium multi-role combat aircraft (MMRCA) deal, according to the French company.

The Rafale fighter piped the other finalist, Eurofighter Typhoon to bag the contract from the Indian air force. Indian officials indicated that they will soon enter exclusive talks with the French company for the supply of 126 multi role aircraft for the Indian Air force.

Moscow, Jan 25 - Apple has posted record quarterly revenue of $46.33 billion and record quarterly net profit of $13.06 billion in the first quarter of the fiscal 2012 which ended Dec 31, 2011.

The company said in a statement Tuesday that it had achieved an all-time record in quarterly sales of its iPhones, iPads and Mac computers.

Apple sold 37.04 million iPhones in the quarter, representing 128 percent unit growth year-on-year.

Moscow, Oct 6 - Apple founder and former-CEO Steve Jobs died at the age of 56, Apple stated on its website Thursday.

"Apple has lost a visionary and creative genius, and the world has lost an amazing human being," RIA Novosti quoted the company as saying. "Steve leaves behind a company that only he could have built, and his spirit will forever be the foundation of Apple."

Jobs had been struggling with cancer since 2003. He underwent a successful surgery in 2004 and a liver transplantation in 2008.

Moscow, Sep 6 - Russian actor-writer Ivan Okhlobystin has announced his intention to run for the country's presidency next year.

Okhlobystin, a well-known TV actor, said he made the decision after "much consideration".

He is also the creative director of mobile phone company Euroset.

Moscow, Aug 25 : Apple's chief executive officer Steve Jobs Wednesday announced his resignation from the computer technologies giant.

"I have always said if there ever came a day when I could no longer meet my duties and expectations as Apple's CEO, I would be the first to let you know. Unfortunately, that day has come," Jobs said in his letter of resignation.

Jobs, who reigned the company for 14 years, also said that he will be replaced by his long-time companion and acting CEO Tim Cook.

Moscow, Aug 24 : Russian President Dmitry Medvedev may Wednesday meet North Korean leader Kim Jong-il, who is on a visit to Russia.

Media reports said their discussions could focus on a project to build a gas pipeline transporting 10 billion cubic metres annually from Russia to South Korea via North Korea.

The Kremlin earlier said the meeting will be the key event on Kim's visit agenda, but named no specific date, venue or topic for the talks.

Kim, who is travelling in his own armoured train, arrived in Ulan-Ude, capital of the east Siberian republic of Buryatia, Tuesday.(IANS)

Moscow, Aug 3 : Online payment company PayPal plans to start business in Russia with a $25 million investment and open its first office in Moscow soon, a media report said Wednesday.

"There are rumours that this fall, the five largest Internet companies will search for key employees in Russia," head of Pruffi recruitment agency Alyona Vladimirskaya said on her Facebook page, mentioning PayPal and eBay, its parent company.

The Russian Space Agency is scheduled to launch a space telescope, which was planned during the cold war era, on Monday when the telescope is expected to be raised to the almost halfway to the moon.

The scientists tool more than 30 years to develop RadioAstron, which has a 10-meter antenna. This may see small but when RadioAstron’s signals are combined with that of earthbound telescopes, the process creates images as sharp as those produced by a single satellite whose dish was as wide as the distance between the space telescope and Earth.

A Sukhoi-T50 fighter aircraft, the Russian PAKFA aircraft has been finalized by India and Russia as the base design model for their $6 billion Fifth Generation Fighter Aircraft (FGFA) programme.

This deal does not indicate that India’s prospects of joining American F-35 fifth generation fighter programme come to an end. India has to select 126 Medium weight Multi Role Combat Aircraft (MMRCAs) with a budget of $10 billion.

BP's transaction with the Russian energy group Rosneft is intimidating to aggravate a gap with shareholders in its additional affiliation in Russia, TNK-BP.

Alfa-Access-Renova, an association of Russian billionaires who possess the additional 50% of TNK-BP, expressed that a section in their joint venture needs that AAR and BP follow all chances in Russia completely via TNK-BP. Representatives of AAR stated that it believed it therefore had the right to veto BP's deal with Rosneft.

According to professional services group, PriceWaterhouseCoopers (PwC), the E7 set of budding nations like Russia, Indonesia, China, India, Brazil, Mexico and Turkey is probable to pass the recent G7 by 2020 in relation to the economic authority.

Recent statistics reveals that the UK will probably drop back in terms of development from Asia and Latin America as the influence of the slump and the financial catastrophe across the globe is anticipated to speed up more with the move in worldwide economic authority to the budding economies, as per the reports.

The unparalleled dislodge, prompted by Vladimir Putin, the prime minister, and shall witness a quarter of the complete world's wheat exports reserved from the market. It paves in as Russia experience from its worst deprivation in over a century, which has witnessed much of its harvest wipe down by wildfires.

Although Britain procures little wheat straight from Russia, most loaves on supermarket shelves have a big quantity of imported flour. Russia's stir sent up prices on the extensive market to a 30-month high in Paris, where European wheat is in operation.

Wheat markets chase to unmarked highs on Thursday, with Chicago wheat trading edge -up, as Russia proclaimed a arrest to grain exports from next week in retort to a dearth that has emaciated crops.

Russia's nastiest dearth on record has overwhelmed crops in fraction of the nations and propels worldwide grain prices towering as markets have conjecture on constrained supply from one of the world's foremost exporters.

According to the critics, a new bill backed by the Russian parliament would greatly extend the powers of the country's spy service FSB, transforming it into a KGB-style organization.

It has been reported that the bill was passed Monday by the upper house of the Russian Duma. First proposed after the terrorist attacks on the Moscow subway system in March, it would enable officers from the FSB, the successor of the KGB and the country's main spy service, to take preventive action against people suspected of planning crimes or extremist activity.

Meteorologists have said that temperatures in Moscow reached 91 degrees in a heat wave that broke a 70-year-old weather record.

RIA Novosti reported on Friday that according to the forecasters, the heat wave in the entire central region of Russia area will last until July 22.

A meteorologist said, "As of 15.00 Moscow time, meteorological stations in Moscow registered 33 degrees Celsius (91 degrees F), 0.2 degrees higher than the record set on July 16, in 1938."

It has been reported that a friend says Igor Sutyagin, a Russian scientist who was one of four accused spies exchanged with the United States, is now in Britain.

He had a phone conversation with Sutyagin, the friend told RIA Novosti.

Sutyagin reportedly said, "I am now in a small provincial British town. I have a Russian passport but no British entry visa. They promised that on Monday I will meet with officials who will decide on granting me the visa and on my further stay in Britain."

The Russian Defense Ministry announced on Thursday that Moscow recalled 270 paratroopers sent to protect military bases in Kyrgyzstan during ethnic unrest in June.

Moscow sent in reinforcements to its military bases about 12 miles north of the Kyrgyz capital Bishkek in June as ethnic conflicts gripped parts of the country.

It has also been reported that Bishkek declared a state of emergency in the regions of Jalal-Abad and Osh as conflict between the Kyrgyz and Uzbek communities claimed hundreds of lives and displaced thousands more.

According to her attorney, accused Russian spy Anna Chapman is upset as her former husband peddled pictures of her naked to tabloid newspapers.

ABC News quoted her attorney, Robert Baum, as saying, "Anna said when those photos were taken she was 21 years old. He asked her to pose and she agreed because she thought they would be private."

ABC reported on Wednesday that Baum also said Alex Chapman had told lies about his 28-year-old client in interviews with the newspapers, including that her father was a Russian KGB agent.

The United States and Russia are discussing a swap of 10 accused Russian spies arrested in June for 10 people convicted of espionage in Russia, officials have revealed.

The Los Angeles Times has reported that one of those apparently set to be released in Russia is Igor Sutyagin, a Russian scientist convicted of spying for the United States. His mother, Svetlana Sutyagina, said on Wednesday he has been taken to Moscow from a prison near the Arctic Circle and is to be taken to Vienna, and then to London, where the trade is to be made.

A Lithuanian deputy foreign minister has said that Russia has reassured Lithuania its natural gas supply won't be interrupted, despite a gas bill dispute with Belarus.

Lithuanian official Evaldas Ignatavicius said, "We got assurances well in advance."

Lithuania would be particularly vulnerable to a curtailment of gas supplies, as it shut down a nuclear reactor this year, making it more dependent on outside sources of energy.

The EUobserver reported on Monday that Ignatavicius stated Russia said it would route gas supplies through Latvia.