* Vitaly Churkin, Russia's envoy to UN, said:
- The UN Security Council ruled to send a mission to Pristina and Belgrade before resuming consultations on Kosovo's status
- The UN Security Council adopted a resolution that extends the UN observer mission in Georgia (UNOMIG) for another six months
* The Russian Prosecutor General's Office brought new charges against Boris Berezovsky, who was charged with diverting 214 million rubles ($8.28 million) from national flagship carrier Aeroflot in the late 1990s
* The Russian Prosecutor General's Office opened an inquiry into Boris Berezovsky for a 'coup attempt'
* Britain's Foreign Office Friday condemned Boris Berezovsky's remarks urging a coup against the Russian president and said it will closely look into this and other statements by the exiled tycoon
* London police began studying Boris Berezovsky's statement to a major British newspaper that he was plotting a coup in Russia to see if any laws have been violated
* Russia's energy giant Gazprom said it is concerned over the raging political crisis in Ukraine, a gas transit country
* Gazprom and Luxembourg-based Soteg SA signed a memorandum of understanding on a 400-million-euro project to build a power-generating facility in Germany, the Russian energy giant said
* A Japanese newspaper reported that Japan's Toshiba Corp. has reached a basic agreement with Russia's nuclear authorities to start talks on the construction of a factory in Russia to produce nuclear power plant components
* Surgutneftegaz sold a 75% stake in Media-Invest that holds 35% in REN TV, widely considered the most independent of Russia's national television channels, to a Kremlin-connected bank, the Kommersant daily quoted the company as saying
* Corruption in Tajikistan and the failure to observe democratic commitments is the main obstacle to foreign investment in the country, Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asian Affairs Evan Feigenbaum said
* Russia's liberal Yabloko party said it will not take part in a new March of Dissent scheduled for April 14, urging oppositionists and law enforcers to refrain from provocative actions and violence
* A Russian delegation that attended talks on the problem of financing the construction of a nuclear power plant in southern Iran returned to Moscow without having achieved any results, Russia's nuclear equipment exporter said
* Georgian parliament voted to establish a pro-Tbilisi government in breakaway South Ossetia until central authorities restore full control over the former autonomy
* The Turkish military may start a three-month cross-border operation against Kurdish separatists in northern Iraq, the weekly Tempo quoted the Army chief of staff as saying
* The European Court of Human Rights agreed to hear a claim against the Russian government from 58 victims of a hostage crisis in a Moscow theater filed four years ago
* Russia and Mongolia will jointly prospect, produce and process uranium, the press secretary of Russia's nuclear power agency said
* Hungarian authorities guaranteed that the monument to Soviet soldiers in Budapest will remain intact, Russia's Foreign Ministry said denying media reports
* Yukos's Creditors' Committee will hold another auction in late May to sell the service assets of the bankrupt oil company Yukos, the bankruptcy receiver's spokesman said
