Main news of February 8

RUSSIA

* Russian President Vladimir Putin said in a speech to the State Council:

- A new arms race has begun, but that Russia will not allow itself to be drawn into it

-  Innovative development is the only alternative to dependence on natural resources

* President Vladimir Putin told Poland's Prime Minister Donald Tusk at talks in Moscow that Russia hopes to build a strong, businesslike relationship with its former Eastern Bloc ally

* Russian energy giant Gazprom warned that it could halt natural gas supplies to Ukraine at 10:00 a.m. [7 a.m. GMT] on February 12 over Kiev's outstanding debt for gas deliveries

* Former Yukos vice president, Vasily Aleksanyan, diagnosed with AIDS and cancer, has been transferred from jail to hospital, a Russian police officer said

* The European Court of Human Rights ordered Russia to pay almost $3 million in compensation in human rights abuse lawsuits in 2007, a Russian representative at the court said

* Russia condemns Palestinian rocket attacks on Israel, as well as Tel Aviv's move to blockade fuel and food supplies to the Gaza Strip, a top Russian diplomat said

* NATO's plans to integrate U.S. missile defense elements into a North Atlantic security system would harm relations with Moscow, Russia's first deputy defense minister said

WORLD

* The recent launch of an Iranian rocket was strictly for peaceful purposes, and was designed to obtain meteorological data, the Islamic republic's ambassador to Moscow said

* Iran is ready for a new round of negotiations with the United States on security in Iraq after February 11, Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki said

* Kosovo's President Fatmir Sejdiu said the province is close to independence and its government is closely cooperating with international organizations to alleviate problems that may arise

* Blizzards and freezing weather across the whole of Afghanistan have killed over 600 people since the start of the year, the Afghanistan National Disaster Management Authorities said

* A woman who stabbed both pilots on board a 19-seater New Zealand commuter plane and then threatened to detonate a bomb has been charged with hijacking, police said

* Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili will visit the United States on March 19 on an invitation from President George W.Bush, the White House announced

BUSINESS

* The average price of Russia's Urals blend oil, a benchmark for the national budget, was $69.3 per barrel in 2007, 13.4% higher than in 2006, the economics ministry said

* French Prime Minister Francois Fillon, currently on a visit to Astana, the capital of Kazakhstan, called on Kazakh businessmen to invest in his country's economy