* Iran's military exercise near the Bushehr nuclear power plant in the south of the country April 6 raises tensions around the $1-billion Russia-led project, Sergei Novikov, a spokesman for the Russian Agency for Nuclear Power, said
* Macao's Monetary Authority said that North Korea could withdraw or transfer its unfrozen $25 million in a local bank
* U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice urged Russia to respect Georgia's territorial integrity and to stop supporting separatist republics within the South Caucasus nation
* Alexander Belotserkovsky, an official from Russia's KBP Instrument Design Bureau, said Russia will complete tests of a new short-range air defense missile-gun system, the Pantsyr S1, by the end of 2007
* NASA is planning to launch four space shuttles before the end of the year, Bill Gerstenmaier, associate administrator for space operations, said
* U.S. plans to expand its air shield closer to Russia will provoke Moscow to increase its strategic offensive arms, Russia's envoy to the United Nations said
* The Polish PAP news agency said Poland's former President Aleksander Kwasniewski arrived in Ukraine, wrapped in an ongoing conflict between the president- and prime minister-led forces
* The Egyptian Health Ministry said a 15-year-old girl died of bird flu in Egypt, bringing the Arab country's death toll to 14
* Iran has no intention of pulling out of the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, Iran's top nuclear negotiator Ali Larijani said
* Ukraine's government is taking urgent measures to cut domestic budget spending in an effort to forestall the negative social and economic consequences of an escalating political standoff, the Finance Ministry press service said
* A U.S. State Department report on democratic processes and human rights protection in the world contains an arbitrary and politicized provision regarding Russia, the Russian Foreign Ministry said
* Iran may stay away from an upcoming international conference on Iraq unless the U.S. frees five Iranian diplomats it seized earlier this year in Iraq, a Foreign Ministry official said
* Russia's anti-drug agency said it will expand cooperation with other countries in global anti-drug smuggling efforts by opening bureaus in more than 50 countries, including Afghanistan and Iran
* Economic growth in Russia will slow down over the next two years, the International Monetary Fund said
* If early elections are held in Ukraine they should be both parliamentary and presidential, the Ukrainian prime minister said
* The European Commission hopes talks on a new cooperation agreement between
Russia and the EU will start before a Russia-EU summit, an EC official said
* The UN administration could leave Kosovo in 120 days, once the UN Security Council adopts a resolution on the Serbian Province, the head of the UN mission said
