HELSINKI, March 15 (Itar-Tass) - Russian Communications Minister Igor Shchegolev is starting a two-day visit to Finland on Tuesday.

TOKYO, March 15 (Itar-Tass) - The authorities in Japan have put an
official death toll from the devastating earthquake at more than 2,400

MINSK, March 15 (Itar-Tass) - The Inter-State Council of the Eurasian Economic Community - the highest body of the Customs Union - will be held in Minsk at a ministerial level on Tuesday.

TOKYO, March 15 (Itar-Tass) - A threat of total meltdown of nuclear fuel has emerged at the Fukushima-1 nuclear power plant in Japan.

PETROPAVLOVSK-KAMCHATSKY, March 15 (Itar-Tass) - An underground m4.6 point earthquake occurred in the Pacific Ocean off Kamchatka's southern coast. No tsunami warning has been issued.

MOSCOW, March 15 (Itar-Tass) - A helicopter of the Russian Ministry for Emergency Situations has brought rescuers to the quake-stricken Japan, a source at the Ministry's press service told Itar-Tas

VOLGOGRAD, the Volga region, March 15 (Itar-Tass) - An international conference on the Caspian Sea and its development will open in Astrakhan on Tuesday.

MOSCOW, March 15 (Itar-Tass) - A guardian at a jewellery shop in the north of Moscow has repelled a robbers' attack preventing them from stealing anything from the shop.

MAKHACHKALA, March 14 (Itar-Tass) - An internal affairs department in
the town of Kizilyurt in Dagestan came under fire at 23:15 Moscow time on

MOSCOW, March 15 (Itar-Tass) -- Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyir Erdogan, who's arriving in Moscow for a working visit, will hold negotiations on Tuesday.