Main news of February 7

RUSSIA

* Two of Europe's main election monitoring bodies refused to send observers to Russia's March 2 presidential polls, citing restrictions imposed by the country's top election officials

* The OSCE's election monitoring body deliberately set out to boycott Russia's March 2 presidential elections, the Foreign Ministry's spokesman said

* Russia's State Duma received confirmation of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe's (PACE) plans to send 30 observers to the March 2 presidential polls, a senior MP said

* Russia's Progress M-63 cargo ship has docked with the International Space Station (ISS) as planned

* Terminally ill former Yukos vice president Vasily Aleksanyan will be transferred from a pre-trial detention center to a specialized clinic, Russia's state penitentiary service said

* Russia's State Duma received confirmation of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe's (PACE) plans to send 30 observers to the March 2 presidential polls, a senior MP said

*  Yevgeny Chivilikhin, 57, head of the Moscow Guild of Markets and Fairs and a co-founder of the Timiryazevsky trade center, was killed in Moscow last night in what investigators believe was a contract killing, a police officer said

* A research center in Siberia is conducting the second phase of clinical trials for a human vaccine against the deadly H5N1 bird flu virus, the center's deputy director said

* Some 400 kg of fuel oil spilled into the Black Sea as a Georgian cargo vessel, aground since a powerful November 11 storm, was relieved overnight, Russia's Natural Resources Ministry said

* Advanced S-400 anti-aircraft / anti-missile systems will be deployed in northwest Russia in the near future, an army commander said

* Another four Progress cargo ships will be launched to the International Space Station (ISS) in 2008, the head of the ISS Russian segment said

WORLD

* Any possible halt in Russian gas supplies to Ukraine is unlikely to affect European consumers, a  European Commission energy spokesman said

* The top U.S. and British diplomats, Condoleezza Rice and David Miliband, arrived in Afghanistan to hold talks with President Hamid on the fight against Taliban militants and on economic aid to the country, the Afghan Foreign Ministry said

* The next round of Georgian-Russian consultations on Russia's admission to the World Trade Organization will take place later this month, Georgia's foreign minister said

* The Israeli military killed at least seven Palestinians including one civilian in the Gaza Strip, local radio reported

* Metropolitan Ieronymos of Thebes and Levadia was elected the new leader of Greece's Orthodox Church, Greek state television said, citing Holy Synod sources

* Israel will continue using Indian carrier rockets to launch its military satellites into space despite objections from Iran, The Indian Express quoted an Israeli source as saying

* At least 25 people were killed and 16 injured in Egypt when a minibus collided with two trucks, causing collisions with six other cars to the south of Cairo, the MENA national news agency reported

* The Turkish parliament adopted in its first reading a bill lifting a constitutional ban on wearing headscarves at public universities, the country's NTV television station said

* Traffic on an Austrian highway ground to a halt on Thursday after a truck carrying jars of pickled cucumbers overturned

* The Amber gas pipeline project proposed by Poland is not an alternative to Nord Stream, a Russian presidential aide said

* An explosion went off in a three-storey apartment building in central Lvov, western Ukraine, injuring at least six, local emergency services said

BUSINESS

* Stroytransgaz, one of Russia's largest engineering and construction companies, said it had commissioned the first stage of a gas pipeline in Syria

* Russia's aircraft industry increased production 16.4%, year-on-year, in 2007, the Industry and Energy Ministry said

* Transneft, which manages the construction of an oil pipeline from East Siberia to the Pacific Ocean, said the project's commissioning would be delayed from late 2008 to late 2009

* Kazakhstan plans to boost uranium production 42% year-on-year in 2008 to 9,400 metric tons, the president of the Central Asian republic's state-run nuclear company Kazatomprom said

* Russian energy giant Gazprom requested the government's permission to prospect three natural gas blocks of the Sakhalin III project in the Far East, a company official said