* Five policemen were killed in an explosion at a Chechen Interior Ministry base in the North Caucasus republic's eastern Gudermes District, police said
* The vice president of the International Olympic Committee said Friday he sees no weak points in the Russian city of Sochi as a possible venue for the XXII Winter Olympic Games in 2014
* The Yulia Tymoshenko bloc and Our Ukraine hope to sign an agreement Saturday to unite into parliamentary opposition in Ukraine, the Our Ukraine press service said
* Russia's Defense Ministry will keep upgrading the Armed Forces, the newly appointed Russian defense minister said
* Russia and Afghanistan have coordinated the terms of settlement of Afghanistan's debt to the former U.S.S.R., which, according to Russian experts' estimates, totals $10 billion, Russia's foreign minister said
* Iran will not give up its right to civilian nuclear power, the country's president said
* A total of 39,000 people were left without heating in the eastern Moscow Region town of Elektrostal after an accident on a heat pipeline, Russia's Emergency Situations Ministry said
