* A source in the Russian Foreign Ministry said representatives of the EU trio - Germany, France and Britain - and Russia, the United States and China, seeking a solution to the impasse over Iran's controversial nuclear program, would meet in New York March 20
* The Kremlin press service said Russian President Vladimir Putin would discuss a new Russia-EU agreement and energy partnership with head of the European Commission Jose Manuel Barroso
* President Putin dismissed the interior minister of the North Caucasus republic of Kabardino-Balkaria
* The lower house of the Russian parliament passed a bill in the first reading establishing simplified procedures to issue temporary residency and work permits for foreigners allowed to arrive in the country without visas
* The Georgian president said the European Union should not recognize the results of the presidential elections in Belarus, slated for March 19, and should impose stricter political and economic sanctions against the country's leadership
* Belarusian border officials said nine Georgian lawmakers in Belarus to monitor the March 19 presidential elections would be sent back home, as their presence on Belarusian territory was undesirable
* Georgia's president rejected calls to dismiss Interior Minister Vano Merabishvili, who is accused of complicity in the murder of a bank manager
* Russian state-owned oil company Rosneft said its president would meet with the heads of China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC) and its subsidiary Sinopec in Beijing
* A source at LUKoil, Russia's No. 1 independent oil producer, said the company would complete the construction of a terminal at Vysotsk on the Gulf of Finland, in the country's northwest, in July
* China's top energy official said the country supported a Russian proposal to set up international nuclear fuel centers under the control of the UN's nuclear watchdog
* The Greek development ministry said Greece and Russia planned to accelerate work on the Burgas-Alexandroupolis oil pipeline, a major energy project that will allow the latter to export oil to Europe in circumvention of one of the world's busiest shipping lanes
* Ukraine's economics minister said his country had concluded talks with Armenia and Colombia in its bid to join the World Trade Organization
* India's Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said his country wanted to step up cooperation in the nuclear sphere with Russia
* Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Fradkov said Russia was ready to ease visa regulations for Indian businessmen and to sign an agreement on readmission
* The president of one of Russia's largest telecoms holdings, AFK Sistema, said the company was looking to invest at least $2 billion in India
