Main news of March 17

A roundup of what has happened in the past 24 hours

WORLD

* Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych has not abandoned his intention to grant Russian the official status of a second national language in Ukraine, the deputy chief of the presidential administration said

* UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon is starting an official visit to Russia to hold talks with the Russian leadership and attend a Middle East Quartet meeting

RUSSIA

* Bomb disposal experts removed more than 900 unexploded World War II artillery shells from a worksite in northwestern Moscow on Wednesday, an Emergency Situations Ministry spokesman said

* Russian President Dmitry Medvedev agreed to meet his new Ukrainian counterpart Viktor Yanukovych in Kiev this May to continue work to improve ties between the two states, the Kremlin said

* Russian President Dmitry Medvedev ordered the government to adopt measures aimed at implementing the national climate doctrine approved last year

* The upper house of the Russian parliament, the Federation Council, approved a government bill to extend a ban on human cloning

BUSINESS

* The Paris Club has agreed to cancel the $1.026 billion debt owed to it by Afghanistan, a press release published on the site of the informal financial group on Wednesday said

RELIGION

* Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia received the highest award of the Armenian Apostolic Church - the Order of St. Gregory the Illuminator

* The head of the Russian Orthodox Church paid tribute to the victims of Armenian genocide, laying flowers to a memorial in the South Caucasus country's capital Yerevan

SPORTS

* Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin could lead Russia's bid to host the 2018 football World Cup, a first deputy prime minister said

* Russian champions Rubin will draw inspiration from CSKA Moscow's victory in Spain when they face Wolfsburg in Germany for a place in the Europa League quarterfinals, coach Kurban Berdyev said