* Japan's Ambassador to Russia Issei Nomura approached Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov with a request that the Japanese fishing boat arrested November 2 be released
* Syrian Information Minister Mahdi Dakhlallah said the situation in his country was totally different from the situation in Iraq just before the war
* The Federal Court of Arbitration said it would consider November 30 an appeal from embattled oil company Yukos of a resolution to charge the company $475.2 million for a syndicate of foreign banks
* Russian Deputy Prosecutor General Nikolai Shepel said police had arrested 38 suspects in connection with the October attack on the North Caucasus city of Nalchik
* The Russian Audit Chamber approved a program of Russian-Norwegian parallel financial inspections for fishing in the Barents Sea
* Russian Minister of Information Technologies Leonid Reiman said telecommunications giant Svyazinvest could be privatized next summer
* LUKoil oil major Vice President Leonid Fedun said the Russian oil and gas major planned to increase its oil production by 5% and double or triple its natural gas production in 2006
* Russia's second largest mobile operator VimpelCom signed a contract to buy Ukrainian Radio Systems for $231.3 million
* The attorney for a man accused of killing the editor of the Russian edition of Forbes magazine, Paul Klebnikov, said he had asked to suspend hearings so his client could undergo a psychiatric examination
