* The World Bank issued a wide-ranging report on the Russian economy
* The Ukrainian Foreign Ministry denied a news report about repositories of chemical weapons and nuclear waste near the Russian border
* The Ukrainian Anti-Monopoly Committee approved Mittal Steel Germany's acquisition of steel giant Kryvorizhstal's stock
* Russian natural gas monopoly Gazprom and Canadian hydrocarbon giant Petro-Canada discussed possible LNG supplies from Russia to North America
* International rating agency Moody's upgraded the local and foreign currency credit ratings of Moscow and St. Petersburg
* Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Zhukov said Russia was ready to discuss China's involvement in developing oil and gas fields in Eastern Siberia and Russia's Far East
* Lawyers of Yevgeny Adamov, a former Russian nuclear power minister, filed an appeal against his extradition to the United States
* The new head of Kyrgyzstan's Penitentiary Service was wounded and several inmates were killed during a police raid on a penal colony
* Kyrgyz authorities said that crime boss Aziz Batukayev had ordered the inmate riots in Kyrgyzstan
* Guichnazar Tachnazarov, Turkmenistan's deputy prime minister and minister of the oil and gas industry and mineral resources, was accused of large-scale state property embezzlement
