Main news of February 28

RUSSIA

* Ultra-nationalist presidential candidate Vladimir Zhirinovsky has spent more money on his March 2 election campaign than any of the other runners, an election committee member said

* Russia and Hungary signed an intergovernmental agreement on cooperation in the construction of a gas pipeline to transport Russian natural gas to European countries

* Russia's Central Election Commission chief warned PACE observers that any comments made ahead of the country's March 2 polls could be considered interference in Russia's internal policies

* Russian doomsday sect members, who have been barricaded in a cave in the country's central Penza Region since the fall, could die from infection and poisonous fumes, the Tvoi Den tabloid paper said

* A Russian cargo ship released by North Korean authorities on Wednesday arrived in the Far East port of Vladivostok

*  A delegation from Russian soccer's governing body arrived in the capital of Chechnya to determine whether or not Grozny is capable of hosting Premier League matches

* The most traditional gifts given to Vladimir Putin during his eight years in office are books, china and glassware, but he has also been sent horses, falcons, dogs and a white goat

* The orbital altitude of the International Space Station (ISS) has been increased by 5 kilometers (3 miles), a spokesman for the Russian Mission Control Center said

WORLD

* Serb Justice Minister Dusan Petrovic signed an extradition request for former Yugoslav president Slobodan Milosevic's family currently living in Russia, but Russia's migration service said the extradition is unlikely

* Serbia is continuing to recall its ambassadors from those countries, which have officially recognized Kosovo's independence, as it summoned diplomatic heads in Austria and Switzerland home

* U.S. President George W. Bush advised his successor to develop a friendly relationship with the next Russian president, who will be elected in the March 2 presidential elections

* An international Steering Committee (ISC) on Kosovo, comprising states that support Kosovo's independence, held their first session in Vienna

* Four Palestinian children playing in a field were killed in the latest Israeli air strikes on northern Gaza, a local hospital spokesman said

* Four people were killed after an Emergency Situations Ministry helicopter crashed in the south of Kazakhstan, the ministry said

* The Georgian businessman and opposition leader, who died in London earlier in February, was buried at his private residence in the capital of Georgia

* Two policemen were killed and two more wounded in a blast that ripped through a village in the self-proclaimed republic of South Ossetia in Georgia, the republic's interior minister said

* Iran's foreign minister urged the UN Security Council to give up attempts to adopt a new resolution imposing additional sanctions against the Islamic Republic, Iranian television reported

* The Iranian president said his country has won a conclusive victory with regard to the nuclear issue, and accused the West of lying over Iran's plans for its nuclear program

* India has extended by two months the deadline for a $10 billion tender for a 126 multirole combat aircraft contract

* China is to carry out its first spacewalk in the second half of 2008, when a Chinese astronaut will step out into open space from the Shenzhou-7 spacecraft, the Xinhua news agency said

* A light-engine aircraft carrying 600 kg of hashish crashed in southern Spain on Thursday, Spanish police said

* Russia and India have agreed to increase refit costs for the Admiral Gorshkov aircraft carrier, the Indian defense secretary said

* At least 16 people, including a child, have died in western India after a high-speed train ran over them as they were walking along railway tracks, national television reports said

* Georgia's breakaway republic Abkhazia will seek recognition for its de facto independence from Russia and the European Union, the republic's foreign minister said

BUSINESS

* Russia's Central Bank admitted having U.S. subprime mortgage bonds in its investment portfolio and said it had suffered losses following last November's credit crunch

* Finland's Fortum will buy a 55.29% stake in the Urals-based TGK-10 generating company for almost $1.2 billion from Russia's electricity monopoly UES, an UES official said

* Russia's Itera Ethanol LLC, a subsidiary of the Itera Group, has made its final investment in a $265 million project to produce bioethanol in Clearfield, Pennsylvania, as part of an investment team