* Two British Airways jets grounded in London reportedly tested positive for radiation contamination
* Russian special services have no information on ex-FSB officer Alexander Litvinenko's involvement in smuggling radioactive materials, a presidential special representative said
* Experts from the Russian Emergency Situations Ministry have not found increased background radiation on two Boeing-737s in Moscow, owned by Transaero, the ministry said
* Kazakhstan is in talks with Russian energy giant Gazprom on raising its transit charge for Uzbek and Turkmen gas pumped via its territory to Russia by 45%, the Kazakh energy minister said
* Doctors said the illness of Russia's post-Soviet reformer and former acting premier, Yegor Gaidar, was caused by poisoning but failed to identify the poisonous substance, Gaidar's press secretary said
* Russia shipped the first two Su-30MK2 multi-role fighters to Venezuela under a contract signed in July 2006, an aircraft manufacturing industry official said
* Russia's Mission Control Center said it failed to correct the International Space Station's orbit due to engine malfunction. The Russian Space Agency said the orbit of the International Space Station would be adjusted following Thursday's abortive correction, before the docking of a U.S. space shuttle
* Industry and Energy Minister Viktor Khristenko said Russia's electric power industry would be reformed by July 1, 2008
* Ukrainian Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych arrived in Moscow on a brief working visit ahead of President Vladimir Putin's visit to Ukraine on December 22
* Russian industrial holding Basic Element (BasEl), asset management company Renova, and steelmaker Severstal announced a consortium to mine coal in Mongolia
* Russia's Supreme Court upheld a guilty verdict against Alexander Koptsev, sentenced in September to 16 years in prison for stabbing nine people in a Moscow synagogue in January 2006, and for fueling religious hatred
* The Russian Supreme Court's military board upheld a guilty verdict against Sergei Skripal, a Russian security officer convicted of spying for the UK, rejecting an appeal filed by his defense
* Vneshtorgbank (VTB), Russia's state-owned trade bank, and savings bank Sberbank may hold initial public offerings next May, the VTB CEO said
* Russia's Stabilization Fund, established in 2004 to accrue surplus revenues from high world oil prices, totaled almost 1,900 billion rubles (about $71.7 billion) as of October 1, 2006, a government source said
* The Finance Ministry's report said Russia's state debt decreased by 731.4 billion rubles ($27.4 billion) to 2.3 trillion rubles ($87.8 billion) in the first nine months of 2006, representing a 24% drop from January 1
* Georgian, Azerbaijani and Turkish representatives will meet next week to decide on the terms of Azerbaijan's natural gas supplies to Georgia, the Georgian prime minister said
