Main news of March 19

RUSSIA

* The U.S. has handed Russia new proposals on the planned deployment of a missile defense shield in Central Europe, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Kislyak said

* Russia's Space Agency confirmed the new composition of the main and back-up crews for the 17th International Space Station (ISS) expedition

* NATO fighters scrambled to accompany Russian Tu-95 Bear strategic bombers on a regular patrol over the Atlantic, a Russian Air Force spokesman said

* Russian customs officers in the Urals have made their largest-ever drug bust seizing a total of 353 kg (780 lbs) of heroin, a spokesman for the Federal Customs Service said

* The Russian opposition movement is planning to hold rallies in Moscow and St. Petersburg in early May prior to the inauguration of Dmitry Medvedev as president, an opposition figure said

* Russia has flight-tested a MiG-29K/KUB carrier fighter, a spokesperson for the MiG aircraft building corporation said

* A Russian military cargo plane has completed the delivery of equipment and personnel to a drifting polar station in the North Pole, Air Force spokesman Colonel Alexander Drobyshevsky said

* Japan plans to establish cooperation with the new Russian president in all spheres, including work on a peace treaty, a Japanese diplomat said

WORLD

* Serbia's neighbors Bulgaria, Croatia, and Hungary issued a joint statement saying they would recognize Kosovo's independence

* United Nations police will return to Mitrovica in north Kosovo on Wednesday, a day after a Ukrainian peacekeeper died following a clash with rioters, a UN spokesman said

* South Korea has said that further economic cooperation with North Korea depends on progress in denuclearization talks, the South's unification minister said

* At least 13 people have been injured in a shootout between criminal groups near the center of Kosovo's capital, the republic's police force said

* Chinese officials said 105 people have surrendered to authorities following anti-Chinese riots in Tibet's capital, Lhasa

* British science fiction author Sir Arthur C. Clarke, best known for writing '2001: A Space Odyssey', died in Sri Lanka at the age of 90

* Saudi Arabia's first women-only hotel has opened in the capital Riyadh, the Al-Watan newspaper said

* Ukraine plans to charge Russian ship-owners over $1 billion in damages for a November fuel oil spill in the Kerch Strait, the press office of the Ukrainian government said

* U.S. space tourist Richard Garriott, scheduled to fly to the International Space Station (ISS) this fall, intends to give lessons from orbit, the Space Adventures website said

* Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said Israel could halt rocket fire from Gaza without a major ground offensive in the Palestinian enclave, the Haaretz newspaper reported

* Russia and Syria signed an agreement on easing visa requirements for some categories of citizens from both countries

BUSINESS

* Ukraine's government instructed the state energy company Naftogaz to hold further talks on the natural gas deal signed earlier this month with Russia's Gazprom, a presidential spokesman said

* Russia's leading uranium miner, Atomredmetzoloto, a subsidiary of the Russian state corporation, Atomenergoprom, said its uranium output was 3,413 metric tons in 2007, a 7% rise year-on-year

* Private companies will not be permitted to manage Russia's international reserves, which will remain under the Central Bank's control, Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin said

* Russia will raise its duty on oil exports to a record $340.1 per metric ton on April 1, in line with global market trends, the government press service said

* Turkmenistan could boost annual gas output from the current 80 billion to 130 billion cubic meters in the near future, an official of the Central Asian republic's gas monopoly Turkmengaz said

* Police seized documents from the central office of one of Russia's largest oil companies, the Russian-British joint oil venture TNK-BP, as part of a probe into its subsidiary, Sidanko