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Fires: U.S. aid for Russia

MOSCOW: The first planeloads of U.S. aid for the Russian wildfire tragedy arrived in Moscow on Saturday as firefighters battled to contain a fire still raging close to a top secret nuclear facility.

Officials said nationwide the area ablaze was almost a quarter that of a week ago but there appeared to be little progress in reducing the size of the fire close to Russia's main nuclear research centre in Sarov.

Two U.S. Air Force C-130 planes touched down at Vnukovo airport in the early hours of Saturday, followed by a charter flight from California ordered by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, said the Foreign Ministry.

The Emergencies Ministry said there were still 480 fires in Russia covering 138,500 acres, a quarter of the area of almost 495,000 acres at the peak of the crisis. The fires have been sparked by the worst heatwave in Russia's history, which destroyed one quarter of its crops and last week blanketed Moscow in a toxic smog that has raised concern for public health. — AFP

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