Gazprom Boosts LPG MOSCOW (Bloomberg) -- Gazprom's petrochemical unit plans to expand its network of filling stations, which sell liquefied petroleum gas for automobiles, because the company expects domestic demand for the fuel to surge fivefold by 2010. Sibur, in which Gazprom owns a 50.7 percent stake, expects the use of liquefied petroleum gas, or LPG, by drivers to reach 1.5 million metric tons per year by 2010, up from 300,000 tons per year, the company said in a statement Friday. Sibur is now producing enough LPG to supply 250 filling stations. Sibur plans ""to set up auto-gas-fueling units based on trucks with tankers,"" the statement said. ""That will allow moving the units to new locations in a short time."" The country is the world's largest fossil fuels producer, making 6.8 million tons of LPG per year. Sibur makes a third of the country's output by buying petroleum gas, which is often extracted with oil, from LUKoil, Yukos and Tyumen Oil Co., the country's top oil companies.

A brief look at the stories making headlines in the Russian-language press

These are likely the last world championships in Alexei Nemov's long, illustrious career, and the Russian wasn't about to see them end early.

Russia's attitude of ""denial"" over concerns about biological weapons are making it more difficult to secure U.S. funds to destroy its massive chemical arsenal.

New Yorkers may have been shocked Tuesday by news of a $48 million insurance scam that involved thousands of fake car crashes. But here, where laws are regularly bent, overlooked or simply ignored, fraud is a rule of the road.

Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev said Friday that his country, Russia, Ukraine and Belarus might next month sign a single economic space agreement.

Missile Sting Praised MOSCOW (AP) -- U.S. President George W. Bush called President Vladimir Putin on Saturday to swap praise over the international sting operation earlier in the week that resulted in the arrest of an arms dealer accused by the United States of arranging to sell a Russian shoulder-fired missile, the Kremlin said. Putin's press service said the two leaders ""with satisfaction noted that the close cooperation in the fight against terrorism is yielding concrete results."" Both leaders ""highly appraised"" the joint operation, the Kremlin said. Hemant Lakhani, a British citizen of Indian descent, was arrested Tuesday in New Jersey after an operation that U.S. officials said began in December 2001 with a tip that he was seeking to buy weapons in St. Petersburg. Lakhani agreed to deliver a shoulder-fired missile to U.S. agents posing as buyers after he obtained it from Russian agents posing as sellers, U.S. prosecutors said.