Main news of March 11

RUSSIA

* Russia's MiG signed a contract with the Indian Defense Ministry to upgrade around 70 MiG-29 fighters, in service since the 1980s, a spokesman for the aircraft manufacturer said

* Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Moscow would like to see the signing of a treaty on cooperation in Afghanistan between NATO and the Collective Security Treaty Organization

* Russian First Deputy Prime Minister Sergei Ivanov said Russia has no territorial claims to Antarctica, and will strictly abide by an international convention on the continent

* Russian helicopter pilots will take part in a peacekeeping operation in Chad, Russia's Defense Minister Anatoly Sedyukov said

* A Russian centenarian who claimed to be world's oldest living person, Varvara Semennikova, from Russia's Far East, died at the age of 117, the Moskovsky Komsomolets daily said

WORLD

* About 20 senior officials of the EU's police and justice mission (EULEX) in Kosovo arrived in Pristina, the mission's head French General Yves de Karmebon said

* The European Union is to give the government of Kosovo over $385 million to prepare for admission into the EU, the head of the European Commission Liaison Office in Kosovo said

* Ukraine and the EU agreed to extend by a year an Ukraine-EU action plan initially expected to run from 2005-2007, the Ukrainian government said, citing premier Yulia Tymoshenko in Brussels

* U.S. space shuttle Endeavour was launched from Cape Canaveral in Florida to deliver the first part of a Japanese lab and a Canadian-built robot to the International Space Station

* Russia's Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov will visit Syria, Israel and the Palestinian territories on March 19-21 to discuss holding a Mideast meeting in Moscow, a ministry spokesman said

* Iran is ready to share its experience in nuclear engineering with Indonesia, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said

* Palestinian militants launched a rocket at a city in the south of Israel, breaking a tacit ceasefire agreement, the Israeli army said

* The trial of three Croatian generals accused of crimes against humanity started at the international war crimes tribunal in The Hague

* Workers digging a subway in the historic city of Thessaloniki, in northern Greece, unearthed a massive tomb, filled with ancient treasures, the state archaeological service said

BUSINESS

* Ex-Soviet Central Asian states will begin exporting their natural gas at European-level prices from 2009, Russia's gas monopoly, Gazprom, said