Main news of March 21

A roundup of what has happened in the past 24 hours

WORLD

* At least ten civilians were killed and another eight injured in a suicide bomb attack by Taliban militants in southern Afghanistan, regional authorities said

* Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki called for a manual recount of votes cast in Iraq's tight parliamentary election held on March 7

* The Indian Navy has successfully test-fired the BrahMos supersonic anti-ship cruise missile, the Indian-Russian joint venture BrahMos Aerospace said

* UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon arrived in the Gaza Strip as part of a Middle East tour aimed at reviving the peace process

RUSSIA

* A businessman is suspected of killing his wife and two daughters in Moscow to spare them the trouble of having to pay off his big debts, the Russian capital's top investigator said

* Investigators have opened a criminal case into Saturday's fire in a business center in northern Moscow that killed the Russian capital's chief firefighter, investigators said

* Syria and Russia signed a cultural cooperation program for 2010-2012 in Damascus

RELIGION

* Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia on Sunday congratulated the head of the Belarusian Orthodox Church on his 75th birthday