* Belarus hopes Russia will abandon its plan to impose duties on crude oil supplies in exchange for 50% of Belarusian revenues received from the re-export of refined products to Europe, First Deputy Prime Minister Vladimir Semashko said
* Russian emergencies officials in the Siberian region of Irkutsk said a rescue operation is under way to save a group of five or six people, presumably fishermen, stranded on a drifting ice floe in Lake Baikal
* A pipeline in the southeastern Russian province of Saratov leaked nearly 40,000 U.S. gallons of oil over an area of more than 12 acres
* A Cambodian fishing boat operated by a predominantly Russian crew was detained for alleged poaching near the Kamchatcka Peninsula, off Russia's Pacific coast
