* The lower house of the Chechen parliament unanimously approved Ramzan Kadyrov's candidacy for the post of the republic's prime minister
* Russian senator Mikhail Margelov said Khaled Meshaal, the head of the political bureau of the Palestinian radical resistance movement Hamas, had voiced readiness to ensure equal rights to representatives of all faiths in the Palestinian National Authority
* The administration of the Kemerovo Region said two people were killed and three injured in a blast at a Siberian mine
* Terry Davis, the secretary-general of the Council of Europe, said he hoped that Russia would abolish death penalty soon
* Iran's top nuclear negotiator Ali Larijani said Iran would never give up its legal rights in the nuclear sphere
* The head of the Russian government staff said the government had canceled the ban on red turn signals for cars
