Main news of February 28

A roundup of what has happened in the past 24 hours

WORLD

* The death count from a powerful earthquake in Chile has sharply risen to 708, the local newspaper Tercera reported citing President Michelle Bachelet

* Parliamentary and local elections in Tajikistan ended at 20:00 local time (15:00 GMT) with a voter turnout of 85.2%, the Central Election Commission (CEC) said

* The world's most powerful atom smasher has been restarted, the Symmetry magazine reported

* Somali pirates have released a Greek cargo ship captured two months ago after receiving a ransom, the EU's naval force announced

RUSSIA

* Investigators rule out that the top manager of a Russian oil and gas company whose body was found Saturday in Moscow had been killed, the top Moscow investigator said

SPORT

* Norway's Petter Northug grabbed the gold medal in the men's 50 km mass start cross country skiing race at the Olympic Games in Vancouver

* Canada won three gold medals in a row on the 16th day of the Winter Olympic Games in Vancouver, securing the top place in overall gold medal count