Russia has authorised the first direct flights from the Georgian capital of Tbilisi since the two countries' brief war in August 2008, the transport ministry said, Russian news agencies reported.

"The decision was taken to authorise Georgian Airways company charter flights on December 29 and 30," said a ministry statement cited by agencies.

The flights would serve Moscow and Saint Petersburg, it said.

Direct flights have been suspended since the two countries went to war over the Russian-backed separatist Georgian region of South Ossetia.

Avalanches in northern Italy killed seven people, including a team of four rescue workers sent out to find two tourists caught in an earlier accident, Italian media reported Sunday.

Two tourists were trapped in a first avalanche at Val Lasties, near Trentino, late Saturday, and a second avalanche killed four members of an seven-strong team sent out to help.

Meanwhile, a 12-year-old German boy died in a separate avalanche in nearby Alto Adige as he was skiing off-piste with his brother and a friend.

Cody Nance is excited to be coming out of the chute so close to home. The PBR reigning Rookie of the Year grew up in Paris, Tenn.

'What you got?" Summer Bicknell asks her chef as she walks into the kitchen at Locopops.

Ralph Emery: Country Music Hall of Fame member, and one time foremost all night radio disc jockey for WSM Radio in Nashville, Ralph Emery has been selected for induction into the National Radio Hall of Fame in a ceremony to be held in Chicago on November 6, 2010.

Funeral services Bernice M. Byrd, of Paris, age 87, were held Wednesday, Aug. 4, at 10:30 a.m. in the LeDon Chapel of Ridgeway Funeral Home with Chad Kennedy officiating.