Thirty-eight people, mostly psychiatric patients, were killed Friday in a fire that ravaged a hospital in the Moscow region, suffocating the victims as they slept behind barred windows. The deadly blaze raised new questions about security standards at Russia's medical institutions, in particular psychiatric hospitals, after a string of fires in the last years. The fire broke out on the roof and spread rapidly throughout the hospital wing in the small town of Ramensky around 40 kilometres (25 miles) outside Moscow, the health ministry said.

Two brothers of Chechen origin suspected of staging the Boston Marathon bombings, one of whom was shot dead by police on Friday, are innocent of any crime, the Interfax news agency quoted a man identified as their father as saying. "In my opinion, my children were set up by the secret services because they are practising Muslims," Anzor Tsarnaev told the Interfax news agency from the North Caucasus Russian city of Makhachkala. zak/am/lc

* First sign of horse meat scandal reaching Moscow * Russia considering "protective measures" * Has clashed with EU over food imports before (Adds official saying hot dogs came from Austria, protective measures planned) MOSCOW, Feb 27 (Reuters) - Hot dogs tainted with horse meat have been imported to Russia from the European Union, the country's agricultural oversight agency said on Wednesday, in the first concrete sign of the food mislabelling scandal reaching Moscow.

MOSCOW, Feb 27 (Reuters) - Six world powers have failed so far to make any clear progress at talks with Iran on its nuclear programme, Russian news agency Interfax quoted a source close to the talks as saying on Wednesday. "So far there is no particular rapprochement. There is an impression that the atmosphere (at talks) is not very good," Interfax quoted the source as saying in the Kazakh city of Almaty where a second day of talks was under way. (Reporting by Gabriela Baczynska, Editing by Timothy Heritage)