* Russian state-owned oil company Rosneft said its board of directors had approved a decision to issue additional stock by converting ordinary and preferred shares of the company's 12 subsidiaries to Rosneft shares
* Russian diplomats quoted China's environmental watchdog as saying that a chemical spill that had happened in China on August 20 posed no threat to the Amur River on the Russian border or its tributary the Songhua
* Alexander Koptsev, convicted of stabbing nine people in a Moscow synagogue at the beginning of the year, apologized to his victims
* The recovery operation at the crash site of a Russian airliner in eastern Ukraine is nearly over and the remains of all the victims have been found, the emergencies services said
* A Moscow court rejected an appeal filed by Svetlana Bakhmina, a top lawyer with Yukos, against a seven-year prison sentence but cut her jail term by six months
* Four interior ministry servicemen have been killed and one wounded in an explosion at a garrison located near a television tower in the Chechen capital, local police said
* Addressing the nation on its Independence Day, the Ukrainian president called for the promotion of the Ukrainian language among politicians and the establishment of a united, independent Orthodox church
* Russia's Central Bank said it had revoked the operating licenses of three banks - Moscow-based Centurion Universal Commercial Bank, Federal Industrial Bank and UniverBank Joint Stock Commercial Bank - over breaches in banking legislation, including the law on money laundering
* Russian strategic bombers launched a series of cruise missiles during command-and-staff exercises at a number of testing grounds, a senior Air Force official said
* A Urals military court ruled against a forensic medical re-examination in the case of a Russian conscript who was brutally beaten in early January, a lawyer for the soldier said
* Atomstroiexport, Russia's nuclear power equipment and service export monopoly, said it had put into operation water conditioning facilities at the Bushehr nuclear power plant in Iraq
