* Russia's Finance Ministry said it plans to launch talks in a few weeks' time on writing off much of North Korea's $8bln debt
* Russia's electricity market and natural gas prices will be fully liberalized by 2011, Industry and Energy Minister Viktor Khristenko said
* Net capital inflow into Russia reached $25 billion in the first 10 months of 2006, said Central Bank First Deputy Chairman Alexei Ulyukayev
* Unified Energy System plans to hold initial public offerings for up to 15 of its subsidiaries established in recent years as part of power sector reform, said the Russian electricity monopoly's chief executive, Anatoly Chubais
* International ratings agency Standard&Poors said it has upgraded the credit rating of Russian energy giant Gazprom from BBB- to BBB with a stable outlook
* Relatives of people killed in a plane crash in the Siberian city of Irkutsk in July have filed a lawsuit against the airliner's European manufacturer, Airbus, for over 17.5 million rubles ($665,000), a lawyer said
* Sergei Mironov, speaker of Russia's upper house of parliament, announced the official registration of a new left-leaning political party with him at the helm, A Just Russia: Motherland/Pensioners/Life
* Russia's air traffic watchdog said it will stop servicing three of the countries' airlines - Dalavia, Domodedovo Airlines and Interavia - over unpaid debts
* Yegor Gaidar, a former acting prime minister of Russia, was taken to a Moscow hospital after coming down with an illness, which Anatoly Chubais, head of Russian electricity giant UES, said is linked to the recent killings of an investigative journalist and a former spy
* The death toll in a fire at MMK, one of Russia's largest steel and iron plant, in the Urals city of Magnitogorsk climbed to seven, a local emergencies spokesman said
* Ukraine's prime minister, Viktor Yanukovych, said he will seek the dismissal of president-allied Foreign Minister Borys Tarasyuk, over an alleged attempt to stall the premier's scheduled visit to the United States
