Main news of March 11

A roundup of what has happened in the past 24 hours

WORLD

* Over 1,000 people are feared dead, and hundreds are missing after a powerful earthquake struck off the coast of Japan, causing a tsunami

* A magnitude 6.6 aftershock earthquake ripped through Japan's western Niigata prefecture around 12 hours after the fifth strongest quake on record struck off the country's northeast coast, the Kyodo news agency said

* Police in Saudi Arabian capital of Riyadh tightened security measures ahead of expected anti-government riots, a local policeman told RIA Novosti

* Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi threatened to break off cooperation with the European Union on combating terrorism and illegal migration in an address to an emergency EU summit

* At least 25 people were killed and some 250 injured after an earthquake hit Yingjiang County in southwest China's Yunnan Province

RUSSIA

* Russia's flagship airline Aeroflot opened its own flight school in the Moscow region

* Two bombs were detonated in the entrance hall of a residential building for employees of Russia's Federal Security Service in north Moscow, injuring no one, a police spokesman said

* A Russian national taken hostage in Nigeria was released in a special operation, the Russian Foreign Ministry said

* Russia is ready to provide humanitarian aid to Japan, which was hit by a powerful earthquake earlier on Friday, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said

BUSINESS

* Russia will focus on purchases of advanced weaponry in a new state arms procurement program until 2020, First Deputy Defense Minister Vladimir Popovkin said

* Russia's top bank Sberbank signed an agreement of intent to buy 100% of the country's leading investment house Troika Dialog for $1 billion, Sberbank head German Gref said