Main News of April 15

A roundup of what has happened in the past 24 hours.

WORLD

 

* The U.S. is trying to get Russia accepted into the World Trade Organization (WTO) by the end of the year, a top White House official said

 

* The death toll in the recent bomb explosion in a Minsk subway station reached 13, the Belarusian Health Ministry said

 

RUSSIA

 

* Vladimir Putin, the Russian prime minister and leader of the pro-Kremlin United Russia party, proposed on Friday that his party's election lists should be approved by the people

 

* The spring session of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe will not go down well in the history of Russia-PACE relations, Russia's chief delegate said

 

* A Moscow court rejected a $388,000 libel lawsuit filed by the grandson of Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin against a liberal Moscow radio station, the plaintiff's lawyer said.