RUSSIA

Analysts expect quarterly revenue of $19.85 billion, which would be a bump up from the $19.73 billion Citi posted a year ago. Net income is expected to be 99 cents a share, compared with $1 a share in the first quarter of 2011.

Volkswagen Group’s global first-quarter sales surpassed 2 million vehicles for the first time in the company’s history as North American and Chinese sales rose dramatically, the company announced Friday.

Nissan Motor Co. will invest as much as 40 billion yen, $494 million, to build a fourth Chinese factory through its joint venture with Dongfeng Motor Group Co., Nikkei reported Friday.

Barely minutes after takeoff, North Korea's rocket exploded scattering debris over the Yellow Sea, triggering an international search as the US and other countries believe that the debris could be a mine of information to assess the reclusive country's nuclear and missile capabilities.

Trade growth is expected to slow for a second year in 2012 amid severe downside risks that could push it even further below the 20-year average of 5.4 percent, the Geneva-based body forecast Thursday.

Tehran's top negotiator Saeed Jalili told the group of six world powers gathered in Istanbul for talks this Saturday that Iran is ready to hold successful and progressive talks on cooperation.

Iran has stopped oil exports to Germany and declared a ban on imports from 100 European Union companies in retaliation to the EU embargo on Iranian crude imports which will come into force in July, the Press TV has reported.

Syria was due to observe a ceasefire from dawn Thursday, but its fierce attacks on opposition neighborhoods in the run up to the U.N. deadline fuelled widespread doubts it would comply.

New Jersey Nets owner Mikhail Prokhorov is vowing to crush Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban in a kickboxing throwdown should the Mavs land Nets point guard Deron Williams in free agency this summer.

Russia's AvtoVAZ will seek to raise as much as $2 billion as part of an effort with Renault SA and Nissan Motor Co. to increase its Russian market share and convert funds borrowed from the Russian government into AvtoVAZ shares.

Iran has stopped oil exports to Spain in retaliation to the European Union ban on Iranian crude imports that comes into force in July, the Mehr News Agency has reported, citing sources familiar with the situation.

China's space program remains far behind the U.S. in sophistication and technological advancement, but this summer the People's Republic is expected to carry out another two historic firsts. The summer 2012 mission is predicted to make history by sending China's first female astronaut into space and will be China's first manned space docking.

The FBI updated their Ten Most Wanted Fugitive Lists to include Eric Justin Toth, a former private school teacher wanted for allegedly possessing child pornography and producing child porn.

North Korea stated Tuesday that preparations for the Unha-3 rocket, which would carry its first satellite into space, had been completed and that it was now assembled and ready for launch. The White House said it was a ballistic missile in disguise.

The think tank's composite leading indicators for February showed strong signs of regained momentum in the U.S. and Japanese economies, while Brazil, India, Russia and China showed positive signals compared with the previous month's assessment.

Iran has enough funds to withstand a total embargo on its oil sales for two to three years, Iranian media quoted President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as saying days before the resumption of talks with world powers on Tehran's nuclear program.

Syrian troops shelled villages, fired across frontiers and were accused of massacres in the hours before a supposed truce deadline.

Brazilian president Dilma Rousseff said she used an official visit to President Obama to press her concern that monetary policy pursued by the U.S. and Europe was inhibiting Brazil's economic growth.

In 2006, Kashmiri politician Omar Abdullah made a bet that Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari wouldn't be able to visit the state of Kashmir during his trip to India. The wager: a single rupee. On Sunday, Abdullah said that Zardari had lost and was obligated to pay up.

Keeping a 53-mile-wide ocean channel open may be the key to preventing abrupt climate change events, scientists say.

North Korea is preparing a third nuclear test at the site where it carried out its two previous tests, South Korean media report. The news further complicates an already tense situation in the Korean peninsula, following the North's decision to go ahead with a rocket launch feared by its neighbors.