WORLD
* The French-led consortium Novarka resumed work on the construction of a new confinement dome over the site of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster, the Chernobyl nuclear power plant (NPP) press service said on its website
* The Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) will conduct a three-day-long exercise over the weekend, IRGC Ground Forces Chief Brigadier Gen. Mohammad Pakpour said, Iran’s Press TV reported
RUSSIA
* Russian President Vladimir Putin issued an official invitation to the G20 heads of state and government to participate in the St. Petersburg Summit, presidential press secretary Dmitry Peskov said
* A woman identified as the mother of a Russian child who officials in Moscow say was “brutally killed” by his adoptive US parent has appealed to President Vladimir Putin to bring her second son home
* Russia’s Investigative Committee (IC) initiated criminal proceedings against more than 800 state and government officials last year, including about 600 lawmakers on different levels, committee chief Alexander Bastrykin said
BUSINESS
* Inflation in Russia is unlikely to stay within the targeted range of 4-5 percent by the end of 2014, IMF chief for Russia Odd Per Brekk said
* Illegal money transfers from Russia reached $49 billion in 2012 or 2.5 percent of the country’s GDP, with almost half of that sum sent out by a single group of “well-organized” people, central bank chief Sergei Ignatyev said