WORLD
* The UN Security Council ended the no-fly zone over Libya
* Israeli authorities released 25 Egyptian prisoners to swap them for a U.S.-Israeli national held in Egypt four weeks ago on suspicion of spying, a spokeswoman for Israeli penitentiary department said
* The European Parliament awarded the Sakharov Prize for freedom of thought in 2011 to five representatives of the Arab people, in recognition and support of their drive for freedom and human rights
* Representatives of South Korea and North Korea are holding talks with Russian officials in Moscow on resuming six-party talks on Pyongyang’s nuclear program, Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman Alexander Lukashevich said
* The European Parliament believes that Ukraine should receive prospects for membership in the European Union, a resolution issued by the EU on Thursday said
* European leaders agreed to increase the eurozone’s main bailout fund to one trillion euros as part of a package of measures to stave off Europe’s spiralling debt crisis
* A former cellmate of jailed Russian tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky has filed for political asylum in Britain, saying he is being harrassed and pressured by the authorities, his lawyer said
RUSSIA
* Russia will study proposals by Georgia to end a dispute that could wreck Moscow’s hopes of gaining membership of the World Trade Organization (WTO), a Russian Economic Development Ministry spokesman said
* A former police officer has been charged with organizing the murder of renowned Russian journalist Anna Politkovskaya, Russian Investigative Committee spokesman Vladimir Markin said
* Investigative committee recommended house arrest, bail for critically ill defendants
* The Russian Investigative Committee confirmed on Thursday that the remains of Russia’s tsar family buried in St. Petersburg’s St. Peter and Paul Cathedral, as well as the bodies of Tsar Nicholas II’s children Alexei and Maria, which still remain unburied, were authentic
BUSINESS
* Ukraine and Russia are close to a compromise on natural gas supplies and will soon finalize a package of documents, Prime Minister Mykola Azarov said
* The markets and financial analysts welcomed the decisions taken by the European Union to tackle its debt crisis, with stock and oil prices jumping and the ruble strengthening