RUSSIA WILL IMPORT GRAIN THIS YEAR.

"The largest cropfailure in Russia in the past 30 years, combined with extremelylow state grain reserves, will likely force the Russian government"to import grain this year, Russian agricultural officials toldKommersant-Daily August 25. They said that this year’s cropwould be "no more than" 67-69 million tons, some 15million tons less than last year’s and some 25 million less thanthe year before that.

Police Beef Up Security for Americans in Saint Petersburg.