* Armenian air carrier Armavia said the pilot of its Airbus A-320 jet that had crashed into the Black Sea early Wednesday, killing all the 113 people on board, was one of the company's most experienced pilots and it was therefore highly unlikely the crash had been caused by human error
* Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov dismissed as "profanation" U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney's allegations that Russia was using its energy resources to blackmail and intimidate neighbors
* Georgia's president, Mikheil Saakashvili, said his country wanted to develop friendly relations with Russia despite the newly-imposed ban on the import of Georgian wines and mineral waters
* Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice discussed Iran's controversial nuclear program in a telephone conversation
* Energy giant Gazprom [RTS: GAZP] said its market capitalization had topped $300 billion, with the price of its stock on the Russian Trading System reaching a record high $12.7 per share
* A senior coach of Russia's national soccer team said they could qualify for the UEFA European under-17 semifinal in Luxembourg despite Friday's 0-3 loss to Spain
* The president of Abkhazia told a NATO Parliamentary Assembly delegation that his self-proclaimed republic would never return under Georgia's control
* Prosecutors in Moscow said they would lodge an appeal with the Supreme Court against a jury verdict acquitting three men of the 2004 murder of Forbes Russia magazine editor Paul Klebnikov
* Swedish police seized the servers of Chechen separatists' Kavkaz (Caucasus) Center Web site, which had been moved into Sweden after the site's closure in Lithuania and Finland
* A Moscow court upheld a ruling to deny refugee status to former Tajik trade minister Khabibulo Nasrulloyev, wanted in his country on murder and treason charges
