Main news of February 24

RUSSIA

* Yukos founder Mikhail Khodorkovsky and his former business partner were brought from jail in East Siberia to Moscow for court hearings on new charges against them, the Moscow City Court said

* Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said that a state doping control system should be established for Russian sports and tougher penalties may be introduced for those who break the rules

* A senior aide to Ingushetia's chief prosecutor was killed and his wife injured when a gunman opened fire on his car, a spokesman for the southern Russian republic's investigative body said

WORLD

* The European Union announced the inclusion of Belarus in its Eastern Partnership (EaP) program

* Improving relations between the European Union and Belarus will be suspended if Minsk recognizes Abkhazia and South Ossetia as independent, an EU commissioner said

* Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert sacked Amos Gilad, who had headed the ceasefire talks in Gaza with the militant group Hamas since the summer, local media said

* The number of people infected during Zimbabwe's worst cholera outbreak in more than a decade topped 83,000, with more than 3,800 deaths, the World Health Organization said

BUSINESS

* The United Arab Emirates signed a series of arms deals worth more than $1 billion at an international defense exhibition, an UAE spokesman said