Main news of April 23

RUSSIA

* On the first anniversary of Boris Yeltsin's death, President Vladimir Putin gave a glowing tribute to Russia's first president at a ceremony to unveil a memorial

* More than 1,500 servicemen and over 500 units of armaments and military hardware are taking part in exercises of the North Caucasus Military District troops, a Ground Forces spokesman said

* Two Russian Tu-95 Bear strategic bombers and two Il-78 aerial tankers are carrying out routine patrols over neutral Atlantic waters, a Russian Air Force spokesman said

* Russia is experiencing its worst forest fires in 30 years and the situation is likely to deteriorate in May and June, an emergencies ministry expert said

* A Soviet military cemetery in Kiskorpad, that was recently bought in an auction by a private owner, will be returned to the city in a month, an official at the Hungarian embassy in Moscow said

* Two officers from the Federal Security Service (FSB) Ingushetia branch were wounded when their vehicle came under fire, a spokesman for the south Russian republic's prosecutor's office said

* The nuclear powered missile cruiser Pyotr Veliky of Russia's Northern Fleet has completed a missile firing exercise in the Barents Sea, a Navy spokesman said

* Russian inventors account for only 1.7% of all international patents, severely lagging behind developed countries, a Russian forum said

WORLD

* Iran is prepared to try and reach an agreement with any country over its nuclear program, but will not stop its development of peaceful atomic energy, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said

* Pakistan plans to cut by half a $5.1 billion order for F-16 fighter jets from the United States for financial reasons, a national daily said quoting diplomatic sources

* Israel resumed fuel supplies to the sole power plant in the Gaza Strip following warnings it would be forced to shut, a spokesman for the Israeli military said

* France has granted political asylum to Georgian opposition leader Irakly Okruashvili, who has been sentenced to 11 years in prison in absentia in Tbilisi, an opposition party spokesman said

* Israel has agreed to withdraw from the Golan Heights as part of a peace deal with Syria, a national daily said quoting "knowledgeable sources"

* A 69-year-old woman in Florida discovered an eight-foot alligator wandering around her kitchen, local media said

* Ukraine's President Viktor Yushchenko opened the country's first unit of a nuclear waste disposal center at the former Chernobyl nuclear power plant, the presidential administration said

* Around 300,000 people are believed to have died in Darfur from violence, starvation and disease since 2003 with the situation likely to further deteriorate, a UN official said

* Turkish building company ENKA rejected claims, made in a documentary program broadcast Tuesday on Russia's Channel One TV, that it had provided financing in the 1990s to Chechen militants

* Belarus has again called on the United States to reduce its embassy staff in Minsk, a statement from the country's Foreign Ministry said

* The Turkish Air Force carried out air strikes on Kurdish militants in northern Iraq, local media said citing north Iraqi sources

* The chief of the UN relief operations agency said that humanitarian assistance to Gaza, including as part of the UN World Food Program, would come to a halt on Thursday as they had almost run out of gasoline

* The decision by Azerbaijan to seize equipment en route from Russia to the Iranian Bushehr nuclear power plant nearly a month ago is a 'political force-majeure,' a source close to the issue said

BUSINESS

* The Iranian government and Russian energy giant Gazprom have reached an agreement on oil and gas cooperation, the national Iranian oil company (NIOC) said

* TNK-BP Holding, the holding company for Russian-British joint venture TNK-BP, has received back tax claims for 6 billion rubles ($250 million), business daily Vedomosti said

* Russian energy giant Gazprom is concerned over delays in the ratification of the South Stream gas pipeline agreement by Serbia, a Gazprom official said

* Severstal, Russia's top steel producer, announced that it had completed the purchase of outstanding management shares in U.S.-based SeverCorr, which will see Severstal up its stake in the U.S. firm to 85%