Main news of March 17

RUSSIA

* President Dmitry Medvedev said a comprehensive rearmament of Russia's Armed Forces would begin in 2011 given the current military and political situation in the world

* A Moscow court rejected a request from defense lawyers to drop new embezzlement charges against Yukos founder Mikhail Khodorkovsky and his business partner

* Russia will put a regiment of new-generation intercontinental ballistic missiles into service in December, the Strategic Missile Forces (SMF) commander, Col. Gen. Nikolai Solovtsov, said

* A Russian soldier who abandoned his military unit in South Ossetia and crossed the border into Georgia in January is facing desertion charges, the chief military prosecutor said 

* The second regiment equipped with advanced S-400 Triumf air defense missile systems has been put into combat service in Russia, Defense Minister Anatoly Serdyukov said

* Russia signed agreements with Abkhazia and South Ossetia on giving the republics financial aid in socio-economic development and balancing their budgets

* A Russian emergencies ministry plane has arrived in Moscow carrying 14 Russian tourists who were injured in a Vietnamese bus crash that left nine Russians dead, a senior health official said

* Russia's Admiral Vinogradov destroyer and the Boris Butoma tanker have completed their anti-piracy mission around the Horn of Africa and are on their way home, Russia's Pacific Fleet press service said 

WORLD

* A Russian Rockot launch vehicle successfully put into orbit the European GOCE satellite, which will measure and map the Earth's gravitational field, a spokesman for Russia's Space Forces said

* After two days of intensive talks with Palestinian militants to try and secure the release of an Israeli soldier captured almost three years ago, Tel Aviv said in a press release that it was back to square one

* The U.S. State Department said the United States would stop humanitarian aid supplies to North Korea after the communist state requested Washington discontinue the program

* The Nabucco gas pipeline project to pump natural gas from Central Asia to Europe bypassing Russia has been removed from a European Union list of priority projects, a source in the EU Council of Ministers said

* Gazprom has received an invitation to join the Nabucco pipeline project to pump gas from Central Asia to Europe, but will not take up the offer, a deputy head of Russia's energy giant, Alexander Medvedev, said

* North Korean Premier Kim Yong-il arrived in Beijing on a five-day visit to discuss bilateral and international issues

* Japanese Prime Minister Taro Aso has postponed a visit to China until at least April because of "scheduling problems," a foreign ministry statement said

* Uzbek National Security Forces seized 140 kilograms (309 lbs) of Afghan heroin near the Uzbek-Kazakh border, a security spokesman said

* South Korean activists floated around 100,000 propaganda leaflets and 2.16 million North Korean won ($15,430) to their communist neighbors, angering Pyongyang, South Korean media reported

* A Thai court was holding another round of hearings on extradition to the U.S. of a Russian businessman accused of conspiracy to sell arms to Colombian left-wing rebels, Russian television said 

* Abkhazian President Sergei Bagapsh said the former Georgian republic had no plans to become a part of Russia, the Russian daily Izvestia reported 

BUSINESS

 * Russia's AvtoVAZ has about 90,000 unsold Lada cars sitting at warehouses and dealerships, the automaker's president, Boris Alyoshin, said

SPORT

* FIFA confirmed that Russia was among 13 countries, including two joint bids, that submitted applications to host either the 2018 or 2022 World Cups

* Russian clubs' search for Champions League success is hindered by the organization of the domestic game, a Russian first deputy prime minister told Sport Express