Main news of April 17

RUSSIA

* The Russian Orthodox Church is observing Good Friday on April 17, with church services dedicated to Jesus Christ's crucifixion and burial

* A potential gas deal between Russia and Azerbaijan will help diversify energy supplies and ensure energy security, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said

* NATO's decision to hold exercises in Georgia next month threatens to complicate ties with Russia, the Russian president said

* The population of polar bears in Russia's Far Eastern republic of Chukotka has dwindled to the point of being vulnerable to extinction, according to research carried out by World Wildlife Fund experts

* Russia delivered on Friday 23,000 tons of wheat to Cuba as part of humanitarian aid

* Russia's ambassador to France held two hours of talks with the father of a Russian-French girl abducted by her mother and a deal is close on the extradition of Irina Belenkaya, a Russian official said

* An additional share issue is not being discussed as a measure to help AvtoVAZ amid the ongoing economic crisis after the Russian carmaker received $776 million in state aid, a Renault executive said

WORLD

* Latvia plans to offer Gazprom the possibility of building a gas pipeline across its territory as an alternative to Nord Stream, the Latvian president said

* The sole gunman captured alive during last November's terrorist attack in Mumbai asked his lawyer on Friday to retract his confession, saying it was forced by police, the IANS news agency reported

* The president of Belarus said on Friday he was committed to cooperation with the European Union, but refused to engage the country's opposition to improve relations

* North Korea will need at least a year to resume its nuclear program and start producing weapons-grade plutonium, Russian experts said

* The makeup of the new Moldovan parliament was unchanged following a recount of votes from the April 5 poll, the secretary of Moldova's Central Election Commission said

* The president of Belarus said on Friday he was committed to cooperation with the European Union, but refused to engage the country's opposition to improve relations

* The European Commission is ready to provide funding to Italy, where 294 people were killed in a recent quake, the EU commissioner for transport said

* Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has expressed his hope that during the Summit of the Americas U.S. President Barack Obama will not behave like Spain's king who told him to shut up, local media reported

* Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has described the recent mass public disorder in Moldova as "monstrous," adding that "color revolutions" result only in poverty

* Moldova's Prosecutor General's Office has remanded Moldovan businessman Gabriel Stati in custody on suspicion of inciting mass riots and an attempted coup, a Prosecutor General's spokeswoman said

* U.S. President Barack Obama has said he is waiting for Havana to make the next step to improve relations after Washington lifted curbs on visits and money sent to Cuba

* Up to 60 people are feared dead after a landslide engulfed 25 houses in the region of La Libertad in northwestern Peru, the country's RPP radio said

* At least 20 people were killed in an earthquake that hit the eastern Afghan province of Nangarhar early on Friday, regional authorities said