A vast wasteland close to St Basil's Cathedral and Red Square that once housed a giant Soviet hotel is set to become a landscaped park, Moscow officials said Tuesday as they revealed details of a 10 billion-ruble ($312 million) regeneration plan. Hidden behind hoardings, the desolate expanse of bushes, tangled metal and concrete beside the Moscow River housed the Khrushchev-era Rossiya hotel, once Europe's largest. It was demolished six years ago but ambitious redevelopment plans under former Mayor Yury Luzhkov came to nothing.

Moscow, Jun 16 (EFE).- Russia is paying tribute Sunday to cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova, who 50 years ago became the first woman to go into orbit on board the Vostok 6 spacecraft. "Hey, heavens, take off your hat!" Tereshkova said before taking off, as if she were asking the universe to pay respects to the first woman to dare to challenge it. "On June 16, 1963, the entire world learned that at 12:30 Moscow time the spacecraft Vostok 6 went into orbit crewed by the first female cosmonaut," Prime Minister Dmitri Medvedev said in a statement.

Duty editor: Susan Stumme Tel: +1 202 414 0541 -- TOP STORIES -- + US spy chief grilled over surveillance dragnet + Mandela 'responding better' to treatment + Turkey PM meets protest leaders after clashes US-security-intelligence-HongKong,WRAP WASHINGTON US lawmakers grill the spy chief in charge of a massive Internet snooping operation unveiled by a rogue intelligence technician, who spilled the beans to the press and is now vowing to fight moves to bring him home.

By Kim Palmer CLEVELAND (Reuters) - The Ohio man accused of holding three young women captive in his Cleveland house for a decade pleaded not guilty on Wednesday to more than 300 criminal charges including rape, kidnapping and murder. Former school bus driver Ariel Castro, 52, was indicted last week on 329 charges for the kidnapping and confinement of the women, who were freed from his house on May 6 along with a 6-year-old girl he fathered with one of his captives.