Main news of April 2

RUSSIA

* Russian President Dmitry Medvedev is in favor of proposals to increase the resources of international financial institutions by $1 trillion to help overcome the global crisis, a Kremlin aide said

* Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said that he saw in U.S. President Barack Obama a constructive individual who can honestly answer difficult questions

* Most countries are seeing a number of trends that point to elements of economic stabilization, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said

* Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said there is a good chance Russia will not have to place Iskander missiles in the Kaliningrad Region in response to the U.S. missile shield in Europe

* Russia urges North Korea to show restraint with its upcoming rocket launch and related activities, the Foreign Ministry's spokesman said

* Former tycoon and Kremlin critic Mikhail Khodorkovsky who is standing trial for embezzlement, accused Russia's law-enforcement agencies of involvement in oil theft

* Former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev has criticized NATO's eastward expansion and the failure by Western powers to keep their promise not to deploy military bases near Russia's borders

* Russia is planning to launch three more Soyuz piloted spacecraft to the International Space Station (ISS) this year, the Federal Space Agency Roscosmos said

* Russia's envoy to the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) said Russia supported a monitoring mission on both sides of the Georgian-South Ossetian border

* Dubai police say the murder of a former Chechen commander may have occurred as a result of a drunken brawl, and have arrested about 20 Russians who were in nearby bars at the time, a Russian daily said

* Specialists plan to restore a Lenin statue, which was damaged in an explosion early Wednesday, on site without dismantling it, the director of St. Petersburg's Museum of City Sculpture said

* The World Wildlife Fund called on people around the world to sign a petition to try and save the last surviving gray whales threatened with extinction as a result of oil and gas projects in Russia's Far East

* The Moscow City Court sentenced Lors Khamiyev to eight years in prison after he was found guilty of plotting to kill Chechen President Ramzan Kadyrov in May 2007, a RIA Novosti correspondent said

WORLD

* G20 leaders have reached a consensus at their London summit on joint actions to tackle the global economic crisis, the British prime minister said

* British police arrested 81 protestors during the G20 summit in London, one of whom was seriously injured during one of the riots, a security officer told RIA Novosti

* NATO wants to discuss with Russia its plans for military bases in the former Georgian republics of Abkhazia and South Ossetia, the military alliance's secretary general said

* Kyrgyz President Kurmanbek Bakiyev signed a law to end the deployment of foreign military contingents at the Manas airbase in the north of the country, the president's press service said

* Dubai police have released everyone detained on suspicion of involvement in the murder of former Chechen military commander Sulim Yamadayev, Russia's consul general to Dubai said

* The head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) welcomed the newly announced U.S. and Russian commitment to reduce their nuclear arsenals

* North Korea has deployed a fleet of fighter jets to defend against any attempts to shoot down its rocket, set to be launched in the coming days, South Korea's Yonhap agency reported

* While the U.S. president took the limelight in London in the buildup to the G20 summit, two of his country's most outspoken critics - the presidents of Iran and Venezuela - met in Tehran for talks

* More than 32,000 people took their lives in Japan last year, with a rise in suicides reported in October, a month after the global financial crisis took hold, Japan's National Police Agency said in a report

BUSINESS

* Rostelecom said its net profit calculated to Russian Accounting Standards declined 25%, year-on-year, in 2008 to 7.07 billion rubles ($208 million)

* LUKoil Overseas, the international projects operator of Russia's largest independent crude producer LUKoil, said it would continue work to explore a deepwater oil block in Ghana

SPORTS

* Andrei Arshavin has said that Russia's nervy 1-0 win in Lichtenstein was a case of the result being more important than the performance as the side attempt to qualify for the 2010 World Cup

* Russian international Andrei Arshavin has been voted Arsenal's player of the month for March by the club's supporters, the team's official website said

* Exasperated with delays in arranging a title fight with Ruslan Chagaev of Uzbekistan, the promoter for WBA heavyweight champion Nikolai Valuev says he will look for other opponents for the Russian

* IBF and WBO Heavyweight Champion Wladimir Klitschko of Ukraine and undisputed cruiseweight champion David Haye of Britain have agreed to hold a title bout on June 20 in Europe