Excerpt from report in English by Russian state news agency ITAR- TASS Moscow, 9 July: The Russian government is considering the possibility of building an oil refinery that will not depend on major oil companies, Deputy Prime Minister Igor Sechin has said.

Excerpt from report in English by Russian state news agency ITAR- TASS Yekaterinburg, 15 April: Four out of five mines of the Sevuralboksitruda (SUBR) firm in Sverdlovsk Region resumed work on Tuesday [15 April].

Text of report in English by Russian state news agency ITAR- TASS; ellipsis as published Beijing, 17 March: Statements made by the Dalai Lama, as well as reports of certain Western media on the Tibet rioting are absurd and ridiculous, head of the people's government of the Tibet autonomous region of China Qiangba Puncog said on Monday [17 March].

Excerpt from report in English by Russian state news agency ITAR- TASS Moscow, 15 October: The satellite No 716 of the Russian global positioning system GLONASS became operational nearly 10 months after its launch.

Excerpt from report in English by Russian state news agency ITAR- TASS Moscow, 11 October: The companies Gazprom Export and Vemex s.t.o. (Czechia) have signed a long-term natural gas supply contract. As a joint press release reports, the document envisages supplies of 500m cu.m.