* Russian Prosecutor General Yury Chaika said:
- The Prosecutor General's Office asked the U.K. to deprive fugitive Russian businessman Boris Berezovsky of his refugee status and extradite him to Russia
- The Russian Prosecutor General's Office completed an investigation into a notorious fraud case involving Berezovsky
* SUAL aluminum giant's former president Brian Gilbertson and its current co-owner, Viktor Vekselberg, teamed up to produce jewelry under the Faberge trademark, the business daily Kommersant said
* Russia's Foreign Ministry described an article by Ukraine's opposition leader Yulia Tymoshenko, to be published in the U.S. Foreign Affairs magazine later this month, as an "anti-Russian manifesto" and an attempt to plunge the world back into the Cold War.
* Russian Economic Development and Trade Minister German Gref said:
- Russia's industrial production grew 8.4% in the first three months of the year, compared to 3% in the same period last year
- Inflation in Russia was 3.5% in January-March compared to 5% in the same period last year
* South Korean media said North Korea will continue holding its funds unfrozen under a six-nation deal in the same Macao bank for the time being
* A Moscow court ruled that the investigation into a new money laundering case against Mikhail Khodorkovsky and Platon Lebedev in Chita was illegal
* The March 19 accident at a Siberian mine that killed 108 people occurred because some equipment had been deliberately deactivated by mine managers, the head of Russia's technical standards watchdog said
* Russia's federal property fund said it will hold the fourth auction for the assets of the now bankrupt oil company Yukos April 17
* Russian Deputy Finance Minister Sergei Storchak said Russia agreed with Serbia and Bosnia and Herzegovina on settling its debt to these Balkan states and offsetting their liabilities for Russian gas deliveries
* A senior Russian lawmaker said a political crisis gripping Ukraine will be in the focus at a Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) session Thursday
* Ukraine's Foreign Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk said:
- he proposed renewing the Big Treaty on friendship, cooperation and partnership with Russia
- Kiev is not considering any international mediation in the current political crisis
- he urged on conflicting sides to compromise before the Constitutional Court decision pending Tuesday
* Russian parliamentarian Konstantin Zatulin was banned again from entering Ukraine, his Ukrainian lawyer Andriy Fedur said
* Russia's Supreme Court has granted the Federal Registration Service's suit to close the People's Patriotic Party, the court said
* Saudi Arabia and Turkmenistan signed a general cooperation agreement in Riyadh as part of the Turkmen president's debut visit to Saudi Arabia, the Al Riyadh newspaper reported
* Russia and Ukraine coordinated an action plan for 2007-2008 as part of the Putin-Yushchenko commission, the Russian Security Council secretary said
* Russia's environmental watchdog coordinated with Sakhalin Energy that operates the Sakhalin II oil and gas project off Russia's Pacific Coast a schedule for fixing damage caused by the project
* A leader of the left-wing Just Russia party accused the Communists of using their links to the criminal underworld during elections in the West Siberian region around Krasnoyarsk
* The president of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) said that excessive use of force to disperse demonstrations should be ruled out in Russia
* Moscow's Arbitration Court resumed hearings of the four-year-old suit filed by Russia's state-run cartoon fund against a U.S.-based leaseholder, a plaintiff lawyer said
