* Russia's Foreign Ministry said:
- four British diplomats will be expelled from Russia in a move mirroring the U.K.'s expulsion of Russian diplomats over Moscow's refusal to extradite a high-profile murder suspect
- Russian officials will stop visiting the U.K. now that London has ceased issuing visas for Russian officials over Moscow's refusal to extradite Andrei Lugovoi, the key suspect in the Alexander Litvinenko murder case
- Russia will halt joint antiterrorism efforts with Britain in response to the expulsion of Russian diplomats and the suspension of talks to facilitate the visa regime
* Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov warned against isolating Hamas, and said the international community should respect the Islamic group as a parliamentary majority party
* The European Court of Human Rights ruled that Russia must pay 8,000 euros ($11,000) in compensation to a former Russian prosecutor general who was excluded from a candidate list in 2003 parliamentary elections
* President Vladimir Putin is hosting the leaders of Hungary and Finland at a Finno-Ugric festival in the capital of the Russian republic of Mordovia
* Construction of the second leg of the East Siberia-Pacific Ocean (ESPO) pipeline, managed by state-run pipeline operator Transneft, could begin in 2015-2017, a deputy industry and energy minister said
WORLD
* British Foreign Secretary David Miliband condemned Russia's decision to expel four British diplomats
* Former U.S. defense official, William J. Perry said the risks of an accidental nuclear war have increased since the Cold War as Russia's early warning capability has deteriorated
* Lebanese troops seized the headquarters of extremist group Fatah al-Islam in a Palestinian refugee camp in north Lebanon, the country's national news agency said
* Ukraine . temporarily banned transportation of yellow phosphorus through the country until the cause of a recent toxic spill from a train is established, the transport minister said
* The presidential election in Nagorny Karabakh, a self-proclaimed republic in Azerbaijan, can be considered valid now that 25% of those eligible to vote have done so, the region's central election commission said
* Thirty-seven people, mainly police, were killed in two terrorist attacks in north and south Pakistan, local media reported
* A 7,000-kilometer (4,300-mile) natural gas pipeline will link Turkmenistan and China within a few years, Turkmen President Gurbanguly Berdymukhammedov's press service said after his visit to China
BUSINESS
* The president of Russia's Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs, Alexander Shokhin, said the current Russian-British diplomatic crisis could lead to many Russian companies leaving the London Stock Exchange
* Pakistan wants Russian energy giant Gazprom to play an important role in a project to build a natural gas pipeline linking India, Pakistan and Iran, Islamabad's ambassador to Moscow said
* The Russian industrial safety watchdog said Russia and North Korea will set up a joint venture to reconstruct a rail link between the Russian border town of Khasan and North Korea's Najin
* Four non-governmental organizations in the United States called on the Bush administration to ban Kazakhstan from nuclear technologies and from buying 10% in the Westinghouse nuclear power company from Japan's Toshiba
* Alfa Bank, Russia's largest privately-owned bank, said it had raised a $900 million syndicated loan, a record figure for a private Russian bank
* Fitch Ratings upgraded Russia-based Sistema financial corporation's long-term foreign and local currency issuer default ratings to BB- from B+, with a stable outlook
* Gazprombank decided to open a financial company in London, the bank's press service said
