WORLD
* Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said that the Palestinian group Hamas has adopted a more realistic position in negotiations on a peace settlement with Israel
* Russia's foreign minister has met with his Somali counterpart to discuss international efforts to protect shipping routes in the Gulf of Aden from Somali pirate attacks, the Russian ministry said.
* Seven people were killed and 17 severely injured in western Ukraine in a crash between a truck and a minibus on its way to a monastery, the emergencies ministry said
* A two-day meeting of G8 energy ministers got underway in Rome with an investment forum involving global energy companies
* The Atlantis space shuttle carrying a crew returning from the Hubble telescope will make a third attempt to land on Sunday, NASA said
* Moldova's outgoing president called on the European Union to take action against Romanian politicians responsible for last month's anti-government riots in the Moldovan capital
* An Azerbaijani soldier fatally shot four colleagues during military exercises, the country's ANS Press news agency reported
RUSSIA
* Oil production in Russia is showing the signs of growth compared with last year and is expected to match the 2008 level, Energy Minister Shmatko said
* A passenger plane flying from Perm in the Urals to Antalya in Turkey was forced to make an emergency landing in south Russia due to problems with the fuel system, the emergencies ministry said
* Russia's chief sanitary official advised Russian citizens against visiting Japan, where human cases of the swine flu virus have been registered
* Police have found a large cache of weapons hidden in a forest in Russia's troubled North Caucasus republic of Chechnya, a local police source said
* A sculpture of legendary English pop group The Beatles has been unveiled by the Iset River in the center of Yekaterinburg, the largest city in Russia's Urals
SPORT
* Arsenal Football Club's Russian striker Andrei Arshavin is seeking a large salary increase to compensate for the high British tax rate, the Mail on Sunday reported
