Main News of April 16

WORLD

* UN and Arab League envoy Kofi Annan’s plan is the last chance to normalize the political situation in Syria and the country’s authorities should not miss it, Professor Aref Dalila, head of Syria’s internal opposition, told RIA Novosti in an exclusive interview

* The UN Security Council on Monday strongly condemned North Korea’s rocket launch last week, calling it a serious violation of UN resolutions

* Azerbaijan announced the completion in its capital, Baku, of a sparkling new 25,000-capacity arena for this year’s Eurovision Song Contest – but rights workers say scores of families were kicked out of their homes to make way for it

* The European Court of Human Rights said it could not consider complaints over Russia's investigation into the 1940 Katyn massacre

* The first group of UN observers who arrived in Syria earlier have proceeded to their mission - monitoring and making sure the country’s ceasefire is adhered to, UN Chief Ban Ki-moon said

* Norwegian self-confessed shooter Anders Breivik who went on trial Monday over a deadly massacre last year that claimed 77 lives, pleaded not guilty and said he was acting in self-defense

RUSSIA

* A senior government official in the Siberian region of Krasnoyarsk has been charged with embezzling 29 million rubles ($980,000) in state funds, investigators said

BUSINESS

* Russian oil major Rosneft and U.S. energy giant Exxon Mobil will establish two joint ventures to work on Russia's continental shelf under an agreement signed on Monday