Main news of March 7

A roundup of what has happened in the past 24 hours

WORLD

* Somali pirates released the Thai Union 3 fishing vessel seized last year with over 20 Russians on board, a Thai Union company manager said

* Ukrainian nationalist association Svoboda (Freedom) is holding a rally in the ex-Soviet state's capital Kiev to defend the Ukrainian language

* NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen arrived in Bahrain on Sunday on a two-day official visit, a NATO spokesman reported

* Egypt's parliament has ratified a deal officially confirming the North African country's participation in an international gas cartel, the Egyptian newspaper Al-Ahram reported

* Bomb attacks by Al-Qaeda militants killed at least 24 and wounded over 60 people in Baghdad as Iraqis voted on Sunday in a general election, the local media reported

RUSSIA

* A former Russian police officer who had posted on the web two video messages urging a nationwide crackdown on police corruption said he has been released from custody

* Irina Antonenko from the Urals city of Yekaterinburg was crowned Miss Russia 2010, a RIA Novosti correspondent reported

CULTURE

* Italian Culture Minister Sandro Bondi has officially apologized to Russian musicians from the Bach-consort classical music band for last month's scandal during a concert in Rome's Pantheon