Main news of April 4

RUSSIA

* President Vladimir Putin told a news conference after a NATO-Russia Council session in Bucharest:

- Russia will honor all its contractual commitments to develop peaceful nuclear programs in Iran

- Any further expansion by NATO toward Russia's borders will be interpreted as a direct threat to the country's security

* A source in the Russian delegation said Russia's president had urged NATO countries at the closed session to solve the Iranian nuclear problem without driving Iran into a corner

* At least three people died in a blast and a subsequent blaze in a residential tower block in northeast Moscow, emergencies officials said

* Air Force Commander Col. Gen. Alexander Zelin said:

- A Russian Air Force helicopter group has begun preparations for a peacekeeping mission to Chad

- Russia's Air Force is preparing to deploy a second regiment equipped with new S-400 air defense systems

- Russia is set to drastically increase its number of strategic aviation patrol flights over the world's oceans to 20-30 a month

* Russia will put its first Borey-class strategic nuclear submarine through sea trials in the second half of 2008, the Russian Navy commander said

* Russia will contribute $500,000 to finance a UN tribunal aimed at bringing to justice those guilty of the murder of former Lebanese prime minister Rafik Hariri, a Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman said

* Tests of Russia's new Bulava-M (NATO reporting name SS-NX-30) sea-launched ballistic missile will be completed in 2008, the Navy commander said

* The 11 members of a doomsday sect still holed up in a shelter in central Russia have taken a 'time-out' in their negotiations with local authorities, a local government spokesman said

* The number of dead in an explosion and a fire at a petrochemical plant in Budennovsk in south Russia's Stavropol Territory has risen to three, the local emergencies services said

* Russia is developing a new naval strategy which envisions the creation of 5-6 aircraft carrier joint task groups by 2050-2060, the Navy commander said

* Russian prosecutors have opened a criminal case into the mysterious death in July 2003 of Yury Shchekochikhin, a Russian investigative journalist and liberal lawmaker, an investigation committee spokesman said

* Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a federal law to return six fourteenth-century stained glass windows seized by Soviet troops during WWII to a church in Germany

* Russia and NATO have agreed on land transits for non-lethal freight through Russian territory to NATO troops deployed in Afghanistan, Russia's envoy to NATO said

* A total of 96 miners and their leader holed up in a bauxite mine in Russia's Urals demanding a 50% wage hike ended a 10-day strike on Friday, a spokesman for RusAl said

* Police have arrested a Chechen militant who allegedly took part in the cold-blooded execution of captive Russian soldiers during a raid on a Daghestan village in 1999, the Chechen interior minister said

WORLD

* Serbian President Boris Tadic said the 400 km (250 mile) Serb section of the South Stream pipeline would be built on time, despite Serbia's delay in signing an energy agreement with Russia

* Zenit St. Petersburg pulled off one of the most impressive victories in the side's history on Thursday evening, beating Bayer Leverkusen 4-1 in Germany

* Iran rejects any new incentives offered by world powers in return for suspending its nuclear enrichment program, the Islamic Republic's president said in an interview

* NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer said he hoped the NATO-Russia Council session in Bucharest, Romania, would help to overcome existing disagreements between Moscow and the alliance

* The Olympic torch of the Summer Games in Beijing arrived in Russia's second largest city of St. Petersburg as part of its mammoth, five-continent relay

* NATO leaders at a summit in Bucharest issued a statement urging Russia to lift its moratorium on the CFE Treaty and to consider proposals made by the alliance

BUSINESS

* Novolipetsk Steel, one of Russia's largest steel producers, said its net profit calculated to Russian Accounting Standards (RAS) dropped by almost 20% to $1.7 billion in 2007, year-on-year

* Russian wholesale generating company OGK-2 said its 2007 net profit calculated to Russian Accounting Standards (RAS) dropped 73%, year-on-year, to 39.3 million rubles ($1.7 million)

* Russian independent natural gas producer Itera posted a 23.7% increase, year-on-year, in net profit calculated to Russian Accounting Standards (RAS) to 2.9 billion rubles ($124 million) in 2007

* Net capital outflow from Russia reached $22.8 billion in the first quarter of 2008, the Central Bank said on its website

* Russian energy giant Gazprom took 19th place in the 2008 list of the world's top 2000 companies compiled by U.S. magazine Forbes

* Slovakia, which wants to retrieve 49% of its shares in pipeline operator Transpetrol, could subsequently transfer the stake to Russia, a Russian official said