Main news of February 19

RUSSIA

* The jury has acquitted all defendants suspected of involvement in the murder of Russian investigative journalist Anna Politkovskaya, a RIA Novosti correspondent reported from the courtroom

* Moscow is not ruling out that Washington may go further than its missile defense plans for Central Europe, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said

* Russia's Sukhoi aircraft maker confirmed that the advanced Su-35 Flanker multi-role fighter would enter service with the Russian Air Force in 2011

* A Moscow court has ordered jailed Yukos founder Mikhail Khodorkovsky, and his business partner, Platon Lebedev, be transferred from East Siberia to Moscow to hear new charges against them, a court spokeswoman said

* Three suspected militants were killed during a special operation in the Russian North Caucasus republic of Ingushetia, a police spokesman said

* A woman in the Russian republic of Chechnya found and handed over to police nearly 171 kg of TNT, a police spokesman said

WORLD

* NATO will continue to expand, but will not ignore the concerns expressed by Russia on this issue, NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer said at a meeting of NATO defense ministers

* A ferry collided with a cargo boat in southern Bangladesh, killing at least one person with another 50 passengers still unaccounted for, national media said

* Kyrgyzstan's parliament voted overwhelmingly to approve a presidential proposal to close a U.S. airbase used to support NATO operations in nearby Afghanistan since 2001

* Warsaw hopes the U.S. will continue its plans under the new administration to deploy missile shield elements in Poland, the country's defense minister, Bogdan Klich, said

* Beijing urged Russia to conduct a thorough probe into the sinking of a Chinese cargo ship off Russia's Pacific Coast over the weekend, a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman, Jiang Yu, said

* The captain of a Chinese cargo ship, which sank off Russia's Pacific Coast on Sunday killing eight crewmembers, is to blame for the tragedy, the Russian Foreign Ministry said

* The Polish prime minister has invited the leaders of central and eastern EU states to discuss the region's economic challenges ahead of a March 1 EU-wide summit, European Voice said

* Ukraine's opposition party submitted a draft bill demanding the foreign minister resign over threats to expel Russia's envoy, which strained relations with Moscow just weeks after a gas row

* Ukraine's national energy company Naftogaz announced it might face problems paying for natural gas supplied by Russia's Gazprom as debts of Ukrainian utility companies grow

* People rallying in Simferopol on the 55th anniversary of the transfer of Crimea from Russia to Ukraine threw eggs at a portrait of a Soviet leader who orchestrated the change

* Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko expressed his hope that EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana will be reassured by Minsk's policies on the EU

* At least 16 wedding guests were killed and five others injured in a road traffic accident in the southern Indian state of Karnataka early, the Press Trust of India said

* A Russian businessman has purchased a 19th-century chateau once owned by Yves Saint Laurent and his partner for 9.6 million euros, the Oest-France Internet news agency reported

BUSINESS

* Baltika, a leading Russian brewer, said its net profit, calculated to International Financial Reporting Standards, rose 11%, year-on-year, in 2008 to 15.5 billion rubles ($426 million)

* Superjet International has opened a North American sales and customer support office in Washington DC, a company representative said

SPORTS

* Zenit St. Petersburg overcame snow and frost to beat VfB Stuttgart 2-1 in Russia's northern capital, while CSKA Moscow held Aston Villa 1-1 in England in UEFA Cup first-leg Round of 32 ties