Main news of March 6

RUSSIA

* Russia's United Shipbuilding Corporation will build more than 1,000 civilian vessels in the next 20 years, the Russian prime minister said

* Russia is ready to discuss revised U.S. proposals for a controversial missile shield in Central Europe, as well as ways of dealing with other global problems, the Russian prime minister's spokesman said

* A senior Russian diplomat has accused the EU of exerting pressure on Belarus not to recognize the former Georgian republics of Abkhazia and South Ossetia

* The managing director of a media company in the southern Russian city of Saratov, who was attacked late on Thursday, is still in a coma in hospital, a colleague said

* Defense lawyers for former Yukos chief Mikhail Khodorkovsky and his business partner have requested the Moscow court dismiss new charges against their clients, a lawyer said

WORLD

* Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton made a symbolic "reboot" to improve relations between the two countries when they met in Geneva

* A Russian-Venezuelan agreement scrapping visa requirements entered into force

* Georgia's armed forces are building fortified structures near the border with South Ossetia, as well as new firing positions, the South Ossetian president said

* Ukraine's national energy company Naftogaz issued a written statement demanding the country's Security Service (SBU) that conducted a raid on the firm earlier in the week, stop pressuring Naftogaz staff

* Kyrgyzstan's parliament has approved the termination of agreements with 11 countries on the deployment of their military contingents at the Manas airbase in the north of the country

* Russia will have a total of 3,800 troops deployed in Abkhazia for the next 49 years, the president of the former Georgian republic said

* India decommissioned its last MiG-23 Flogger fighter-bomber, a Soviet era aircraft in service with the Indian air force for 28 years, a Defense Ministry official said

* The Israeli Air Force has bombed five smuggling tunnels in the Gaza Strip in response to rocket attacks by Palestinian militants, the Israeli army press service said

* Women hold less than a quarter of senior management positions in private businesses, an annual global survey said

* Indian tycoon Vijay Mallya, who bought a set of belongings of Indian independence leader Mahatma Gandhi at a New York auction for $1.8 mln, was acting on behalf of the Indian government, national media reported

BUSINESS

* Russia's international reserves stood at $384.074 billion as of March 1, 2009 compared with $386.894 billion as of February 1, a fall of 0.73%, the Central Bank said

* A Ford car plant near Russia's second largest city of St. Petersburg has begun production of the Ford Mondeo, a company spokeswoman said

* TNK-BP increased its natural gas production 25.6% year-on year in 2008 to 11.708 billion cubic meters, the Russian-British company said

* Russia's Petros company and Indonesia's Nuansa Group have signed a memorandum on joint implementation of Russian technologies in the development of abandoned oil fields in Indonesia

SPORTS

* Russia's state-controlled Vneshtorgbank, one of Russia's largest banks, has decided not to prolong its sponsorship deal with CSKA Moscow, a bank official told the Sovetski Sport paper