Main news of April 18

RUSSIA

* Russian President Vladimir Putin said after talks with Italian prime minister-elect Silvio Berlusconi:

- Russia's largest air carrier Aeroflot will resume talks on buying the Italian government's 49.9% stake in airline Alitalia

- He plans to scale down his international activities as prime minister to focus on domestic issues, and will not attend the G8 summit in Japan

* Russia will back the Israeli and Palestinian leaders in their efforts to reach a peace deal, Vladimir Putin told visiting Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas

* Russia's president has ordered for the remaining visa restrictions on Georgians to be lifted, and for talks to be held with Tbilisi to readmit key Georgian imports into Russia, the Foreign Ministry said

* Russia's claims to a large swathe of the Arctic shelf are in strict compliance with international law, First Deputy Prime Minister Sergei Ivanov said

* A Moscow Mideast peace conference slated for June will strengthen Russia's role in resolving the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas said in an interview with Russian daily Nezavisimaya Gazeta

* Five doomsday sect members from Belarus, who were ordered to be deported, have left the Penza Region and are heading for their native country, a spokesman for the local governor said

* India's largest channel Zee TV plans to open an office in Russia and start satellite or cable broadcasts in Russian by the end of 2008, Kommersant business daily said

WORLD

* The United States urges Russia to abandon its plans to strengthen ties with Georgia's breakaway regions, the State Department said

* Italy will propose discussions with the rest of the European Union on introducing visa-free travel between Russia and the 27-nation bloc, prime minister-elect Silvio Berlusconi said

* Israeli authorities announced a tender for the construction of 100 houses in Jewish settlements in the West Bank, despite an agreement banning settlement activity in Palestinian territories

* A top official from the international nuclear watchdog will arrive in Tehran on a two-day visit on April 21 to discuss Iran's nuclear program, IRNA news agency said

* Israeli and Palestinian lawmakers will gather for their first meeting in Rhodes, Greece, in June during a PACE session on the Mideast, a senior Russian lawmaker said

* A U.S. civil rights group said it has obtained documents from the defense department that confirm the U.S. ignored the use of torture by special forces in the interrogation of Afghani prisoners

* Justice and interior ministers of EU states have directed the bloc's police organization, Europol, to prepare a report on the threat posed by Russian organized crime, the EU Council said

* Israeli forces have killed a local Palestinian leader of the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades in the West Bank, local radio reported

* Controversial Russian artist Anna Mikhalchuk, found dead in Germany, has been identified by a DNA test, police in Berlin said, reiterating that the case was an apparent suicide

BUSINESS

* Russian energy giant Gazprom has paid a total of $665 million for gas transited via Ukraine from December 2007 through March 2008, Ukraine's state gas company Naftogaz said

* Evraz Group SA [LSE: EVR], Russia's largest steel and mining company, said it had completed a Eurobond placement totaling $1.6 billion

* The number of Russian billionaires has grown to over 100, with 10 unable to make it onto Forbes Russia magazine's rich list, the respected business daily Vedomosti said