Main News of April 29

POLITICS

* A Moscow court on Monday sanctioned the arrest of a prominent Russian opposition demonstrator and antifascist activist detained Friday over last year’s May 6 mass protests that turned violent

* The leaders of Russia and Japan have condemned North Korea’s conduct and urged the reclusive communist state to observe UN resolutions, Russian President Vladimir Putin and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said in a joint statement after talks in the Kremlin

* The Russian government has implemented some 73 percent of presidential decrees issued by Vladimir Putin last May, Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev said

WORLD

* The number of terrorist attacks and related arrests in EU countries significantly increased in 2012 compared to previous years, Europol’s press service told RIA Novosti

* A member of the US House Homeland Security Committee on Monday questioned why Russian authorities didn’t tell investigators in the United States about a 2011 wiretapped conversation between one of the Boston Marathon bombing suspects and his mother

* Three or four people may have been killed and some 40 injured after a powerful explosion tore through a building in the center of the Czech capital Prague on Monday, Zdenek Schwarz, head of the rescue service in Prague, was quoted by Czech TV as saying

* Syrian Prime Minister Wael al-Halqi survived a bomb attack that targeted his motorcade in central Damascus on Monday, national media reported

RUSSIA

* Georgia is not considering restoration of diplomatic relations with Russia, but plans to discuss visa facilitation on the part of Russia, Georgian Foreign Minister Maya Pandzhikidze said

* A senior Russian lawmaker claimed on Twitter on Monday that the US authorities had deliberately been inactive over the Tsarnaev brothers, although they had long known that the suspected Boston Marathon bombers posed a threat

* Russia and Japan agreed on Monday to rev up negotiations on a peace treaty, but that does not mean that all problems will be solved overnight, Russian President Vladimir Putin said

* The Belarusian Prosecutor General's Office has decided to extradite to Russia a Russian businessman accused of attempting to hijack a plane while drunk, an official spokesman said

* Moscow believes using the issue of the alleged deployment of weapons of mass destruction (WMD) in the Syrian conflict to attain geopolitical goals is unacceptable, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said

* The Military Court of the Russian Pacific Fleet acquitted on Monday two crew members of a Russian Navy nuclear attack submarine, the Nerpa

SCIENCE

* Virgin Galactic took a giant leap forward in its quest to carry paying passengers into space when SpaceShipTwo flew under its own power for the first time Monday as test pilots fired the spacecraft’s rocket engine during a short flight over the Mojave Desert in California, the pioneering space tourism company said

SPORTS

* Russian water polo player Ekaterina Tankeeva has become the fifth member of Russia's London Olympic delegation to be suspended over alleged doping, the Russian Anti-Doping Agency (RUSADA) said

CRIME

* Military prosecutors have foiled an attempt by several executives at a Defense Ministry firm to steal over 150 million rubles ($4.83 million), Russia’s Chief Military Prosecutor’s Office said on Monday, the latest in a series of frauds uncovered in the sector

BUSINESS

* The Greek parliament approved on Sunday a package of laws, including mass civil service job cuts, to secure the next tranche of $8.8 billion bailout loan from Eurogroup