Main news of March 11

RUSSIA

* The defense team acting for Yukos founder Mikhail Khodorkovsky and his business partner plan to summon Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin to testify in a new trial of their clients, one of the lawyers said

* The former co-owner of top Russian cell phone retailer Euroset has been placed on the international wanted list, the Russian Prosecutor General's Office said 

 WORLD

* A teenage gunman who opened fire at random in a secondary school in southwest Germany killed himself after being cornered by police, national media reported, citing police sources

* South Korea called upon the North to defuse tensions, in a letter sent to the country's titular head of state, Kim Yong-nam, and to UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, South Korean media reported

* The Russian and Chinese foreign ministers expressed concern over rising tensions on the Korean Peninsula and called on all sides to refrain from dangerous actions

* An 18-month-old girl in northern Egypt has been diagnosed with bird flu, bringing the country's official total of cases to 58, a spokesman for the country's health ministry said

* The leaders of Syria, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Kuwait met in the Saudi capital of Riyadh in what Arab media called an attempt to return Syria to the fold and focus on regional problems

* Iran would have no need for third party mediation in talks with the U.S., Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said 

* Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said the era of global capitalism has come to an end and countries need to establish new structures for trade and economic cooperation

* China has lodged an official protest against the U.S. Navy over unauthorized activities in China's exclusive maritime economic zone, the China Daily reported

* Georgia has pulled out of the 2009 Eurovision song contest, due to be held in Moscow, the head of the country's national competition said

* U.S. astronaut Michael Fincke and Russian cosmonaut Yury Lonchakov, on board of the International Space Station (ISS), have successfully completed a spacewalk ahead of schedule, Russian Mission Control said

* Norway's coast guard detained a Russian trawler on suspicion of illegal fishing, Norwegian agency NTB reported 

BUSINESS

* Ukraine has asked Russia for a $5 billion loan to pay for natural gas deliveries, Ukraine's acting finance minister, Ihor Umanskiy, said

* Russia will spend 1.6 trillion rubles ($45.6 billion) of its reserve funds to balance its budget in the first half of 2009, the government website said

* The construction giant Inteko, owned by Russia's richest woman, Yelena Baturina, has put in a request for 49 billion rubles ($1.4 bln) in state guarantees, saying it is unable to refinance its spiraling debt, a business daily said

* Russia's second largest beer producer, SUN InBev, has opened a brewery near the Siberian city of Irkutsk, a company spokesman said

* Russian cell phone operator MTS said its U.S. GAAP net income declined 6.8%, year-on-year, in 2008 to $1.93 billion 

* Nestle, the world's largest food company, said its Russia sales increased 26%, year-on-year, in 2008 to 50.3 billion rubles ($1.4 billion)

* Leading Russian steelmaker Severstal said its net profit under International Financial Reporting Standards increased 9.9% in 2008 year-on-year to $2.03 billion

SPORT

* The Silk Road race from Russia to Turkmenistan via Kazakhstan has officially received the prestigious status of a Dakar series rally 

* Zenit St. Petersburg have signed Portuguese central defender Fernando Meira from Turkish club Galatasaray, the Russian club said on its website 

 * The Russian national soccer team has moved up one spot to eighth place in the latest FIFA rankings, overtaking England