Main News of April 25

A roundup of what has happened in the past 24 hours

WORLD

* The Swedish ambassador to Belarus, Stefan Ericsson, has returned to Minsk after being withdrawn in February along with other EU ambassadors, an embassy spokesman said

* Pakistan successfully test-fired an intermediate-range ballistic missile able to carry a nuclear warhead, Pakistan's DawnNews reported

* Iraqi Shiite Vice President Khodair al-Khozaei has warned that a Taliban-style regime may be established in Syria if President Bashar al-Assad is ousted from power, Arab media reported 

RUSSIA

* State Duma Deputy Andrei Lugovoi, the former KGB officer accused by the British authorities in the fatal poisoning of another ex-KGB man, Alexander Litvinenko, has passed a polygraph test administered in Moscow by British experts

* Jailed Russian tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovky will help the nascent Social Democratic movement to draw up its program, co-founder of the movement Yelena Lukyanova said

BUSINESS

* Russian oil giant Rosneft and Italy’s Eni will invest $70 billion in developing Barents Sea offshore deposits and $55 billion in Black Sea offshore production under a strategic partnership agreement signed by the companies

* Investors can rest assured as Russia prepares to inaugurate a new president and the country chooses its development path in politics and economics, presidential aide Arkady Dvorkovich said