"The Russian region of Mordovia has invited French actor Gerard Depardieu to set up home there, hours after he received his Russian passport. Governor Vladimir Volkov said he could choose an apartment or a place to build a house, Interfax news agency reported. Mordovia is best known for its Stalin-era gulag prison camps. Mr Depardieu has taken Russian citizenship after the French government criticised his decision to move abroad to avoid higher taxes. The BBC's Daniel Sandford, in Moscow, says even today harsh prisons are Mordovia's principal employer. One of the convicted members of the punk band Pussy Riot - Nadezhda Tolokonnikova - is serving her sentence there. The actor boarded a flight to Mordovia's snow-covered main city, Saransk, after meeting Russian President Vladimir Putin in the Black Sea resort of Sochi, where he also received his passport."
"Australian police are searching fire-ravaged towns in southern Tasmania looking for 100 unaccounted people.
Tasmania's police commissioner said he feared lives may have been lost in the wildfires which swept through parts of the island in recent days.
Almost 3,000 people have been evacuated from their homes, many stranded in emergency shelters.
On Friday, Tasmania experienced its peak temperature since records began with levels hitting 41.8C."
