Main news of February 27

RUSSIA

* A Russian government source expressed astonishment over a statement made by Canada's defense minister over a flight by a Russian strategic bomber near the Canadian border

* A Russian warship spilled about 20-30 tons of oil while refueling off the coast of Ireland in mid-February, a Navy spokesman,  Capt 1st Rank Igor Dygalo, said

* Russia's Prosecutor General's Office has filed an appeal against the not guilty verdict in the murder trial of investigative journalist Anna Politkovskaya, a lawyer said

* Russia is in favor of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe running separate missions in Georgia and South Ossetia, the Russian envoy to the UN, Vitaly Churkin, said

* Russia no longer depends on Ukraine to provide it with strategic missile tracking data following the launch of its new radar facility in the country's south, the commander of Russia's Space Forces, Maj. Gen. Oleg Ostapenko, said

* The Russian justice minister said that some of the recent decisions made by the European Court of Human Rights in regard to Russia have lacked impartiality

* Legal forms of protest in Russia should not and will not be restricted, Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin announced during a meeting with leaders of the ruling United Russia party

* Russia's Interior Ministry has not issued any orders allowing police officers to open fire on demonstrators, a deputy head of the ministry's public order protection department,  Police Maj.-Gen. Leonid Vedenov, said

WORLD

* Iran would be able to put its Bushehr nuclear power plant into operation on its own if Russia refused to do so, a former Iranian president, Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, said

* The European Union will give 436 million euros ($552 million) to help the Palestinians rebuild the Gaza Strip after an Israeli assault at the start of the year, the EU mission in Cairo said

* The number of Bangladeshi border guard officers confirmed dead following the recent mutiny in the capital of Dhaka has climbed to 55, national media reported

* Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez believes that high hopes should not be placed on the new U.S. administration or on President Barack Obama, national media said

BUSINESS

* The second five-star Hyatt hotel in Russia has opened in the Urals city of Yekaterinburg and will receive its first guests in March, local authorities said