Main news of March 4

RUSSIA

* Defense lawyers for former Yukos chief Mikhail Khodorkovsky and his business partner accused the presiding judge of bias in their clients' new case, and called for his dismissal

* Fraud charges have been brought against a group of Defense Ministry officials involved in the disposal of airplane bombs and missiles, investigators at the Russian Prosecutor General's Office said

* Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said women should be encouraged to take key government positions in the country

WORLD

* The International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant for Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir over war crimes against civilians in Sudan's Darfur Province

* Masked Ukrainian Security Service agents raided the headquarters of the country's national energy company Naftogaz, sparking criticism from the prime minister

* Ten Taliban militants were killed and two captured in clashes in southern Afghanistan's Helmand Province, a spokesman for the provincial administration said

* Preliminary investigations have shown that a faulty altimeter combined with pilot error were responsible for the crash of a Turkish airliner in Amsterdam last week, the Dutch investigators said

* Georgia's opposition Labor Party put forward its leader, Shalva Natelashvili, to challenge Mikheil Saakashvili for the presidency

* Vienna police have seized 145 kilograms (320 pounds) of cocaine with a street value of around 15 million euros ($18.7 million) and arrested 145 suspects, Austrian police reported

* India is making every effort to have personal items belonging to Mahatma Gandhi removed from a New York auction, India's state minister for external affairs said on television

* Israeli planes have carried out several airstrikes on tunnels in the Gaza Strip in response to rocket attacks by Palestinian militants, the Israeli army's press service said

* India has successfully tested the latest land attack version of the BrahMos supersonic cruise missile at a firing range in Pokhran in the Rajasthan Desert, a source in the Defense Ministry said

* Kazakhstan has signed a contract with Russia on the purchase of S-300 air defense missile systems, the Kazakh defense minister said

* A Swiss tourist who was missing in Russia's Far East Kamchatka Peninsula for over 24 hours has been rescued, the regional emergencies ministry said

BUSINESS

* Norway's telecoms giant Telenor, a core shareholder in Russian communications operator VimpelCom, said on Wednesday it had appealed a court ruling to pay $1.728 billion to VimpelCom

* Sakhalin Energy, the operator of a vast oil and gas project off Russia's Pacific Coast, said a sale and purchase agreement had been signed for LNG supply to the Japanese company Osaka Gas

* Russia's leading carmaker AvtoVAZ said it could resume production on March 5, following a suspension earlier in the day over problems with suppliers 

* Russia produced 36,925,000 carats of diamonds in 2008 worth a total of $2.5 billion, a fall of 3.5% year-on-year, the Finance Ministry said