* Russia has no information confirming that North Korea is preparing to launch nuclear tests, the Foreign Ministry said, commenting on U.S. intelligence reports cited by American media
* The Finance Ministry said Russia had completed the signing of bilateral agreements as part of its early repayment of debt to the Paris Club of creditor nations
* Gazprom has completed the first shipment of liquefied natural gas to Japan through its affiliated group Gazprom Marketing and Trading Ltd., the Russian energy giant said
* Germany's BASF vice president met with President Vladimir Putin and said his company aimed to sign all contracts under an asset-swap agreement with Russia's Gazprom within the next few months
* The Kyrgyz government announced a tender for a stake in the Kara-Baltinsk plant, Central Asia's largest uranium enrichment venture, beginning August 28
* Japan's deputy foreign minister met with Russian diplomats in Moscow and said Russia had promised to hand over the body of a fisherman killed during a suspected poaching incident with a Japanese fishing vessel earlier this week by Saturday morning
* Russian diplomats will start the formal identification procedure of a Russian man found with his throat cut in the Japanese city of Niigata, a local consulate officer said
* Russia's consul in Alanya, Turkey, said a Russian female tourist died of a gunshot wound and a Turkish citizen was badly hurt after a masked man opened fire in a bar in a Turkish resort
* Rescuers said nine fishermen feared missing after their boat capsized in the morning in stormy weather in Russia's Far East were alive
* Ukraine's Anti-Monopoly Committee said it had allowed Russian Standard Bank to buy a controlling stake in Kiev-based AIS-Bank
* A senior Iranian delegation will arrive in Russia August 22 to discuss nuclear cooperation, Russia's nuclear power equipment and service export monopoly said
* Nashi ("Ours"), a Russian pro-Kremlin political youth movement, set up a picket in front of the British Embassy in Moscow to demand apology from Ambassador Tony Brenton for his participation in an opposition-led conference in July
* Georgia is ready to start international monitoring of the Kodori Gorge in breakaway Abkhazia on August 20, but Russian peacekeepers will not be allowed to join the process, said the minister for conflict resolution
* Eleven people were injured in Nazran, the largest city in the North Caucasus republic of Ingushetia, when a bus collided with a train
* An undersea earthquake measuring 6.5 on the Richter scale affected at least five towns on Russia's Pacific island of Sakhalin
