Main news of March 27

RUSSIA

* Russia dismantled another six outdated Topol mobile missile systems under a major international treaty on strategic arms reductions, the Strategic Missile Forces said in a statement

* Three militants were killed in a security sweep in the Republic of Daghestan in Russia's troubled North Caucasus region, the special operation's headquarters said

A total of 27 children and 11 adults were hospitalized with chlorine poisoning after visiting an aquapark in St. Petersburg, the city's medical press center said

* Forty years after he perished in a plane crash, the death of Yuri Gagarin, the first man in space, remains the subject of speculation and conspiracy theories

WORLD

* U.S. space shuttle Endeavour touched down in Florida after a 16-day trip to deliver part of a Japanese research lab and a Canadian robot to the International Space Station

* Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez gave his backing to Brazil's proposal for a regional defense council, amid tensions between Caracas and Colombia

* North Korea expelled all 11 South Korean government officials from a joint office in the Kaesong industrial complex in a sign of strained ties with Seoul, the Yonhap news agency said

* Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko said that no NATO bases will be deployed in Ukraine if the former Soviet republic joins the military alliance as this would contradict the country's Constitution

* The Kerch Strait between the Black Sea and Sea of Azov is facing a new environmental disaster following a November fuel oil spill, Greenpeace said

* Russia's State Fisheries Committee proposed the introduction of a five-year moratorium for all Caspian littoral states on the fishing of caviar-producing sturgeon

* Twelve people died when a Ukrainian Mi-8 frontier service helicopter with 13 people on board crashed into the Black Sea, the emergencies ministry said

* Dozens of flights were cancelled at Heathrow airport's new $8.6 billion Terminal 5 on its opening day on Thursday as luggage problems and computer malfunctions caused chaos

* Scientists in northern Spain unearthed human remains dating back 1.2 million years, which indicates that people inhabited Europe 400,000 years earlier than first believed, national media said

* A French woman who was found dead last week after a court had refused her the right to die committed suicide by taking a lethal dose of sleeping pills, a local prosecutor said