Police in a Siberian city have found the charred remains of several children and suspect they may be those of five boys who went missing in April, ending a massive three-week search, a regional prosecutor said today.

Residents of three sparsely populated Siberian regions have voted to reunite in a resource-rich territory that will be larger than Western Europe, Russian media reported today, extending the trend to increased Kremlin control over the country’s far-flung provinces.

Alexander Lebed, the governor of the Krasnoyarsk territory and a former presidential candidate, died today when his helicopter crashed after hitting a power line, Russian emergency officials said.