Main News of March 19

A roundup of what has happened in the past 24 hours.

WORLD

*Syria has supplied Lebanon’s Shiite Hezbollah militia with advanced Russian-made anti-aircraft missile systems and is training operators how to use them, Israel’s Haaretz daily reported citing a high-ranking military source.

*Four people were killed and two seriously injured when a gunman opened fire outside a Jewish school in Toulouse, France, French media reported.

*Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko paid a working visit to Moscow as already strained ties between Belarus and Europe were further soured after two men, convicted of carrying out the 2011 Minsk subway blast, were executed despite calls from the West to suspend the punishment.

*Heavy fighting has erupted in Syria's capital, Damascus, between the rebel Free Syria Army and forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad, the al Arabiya news network reported.

 

RUSSIA

*The ruling United Russia party, which holds a majority in the Duma, will support Dmitry Medvedev's candidacy for the post of Russian Prime Minister, the party's Duma faction head Andrei Vorobyov said.

*The Russian anti-drug watchdog has prepared a bill introducing criminal punishment of up to two years in jail for drug users, the RAPSI news agency reported.

*Prosecutors in the Stavropol region sided with grassroots protesters against fellow state officials in requesting the dismissal of a bureaucrat whose actions triggered a weeks-long standoff that made national headlines.

*Gay rights activists in St. Petersburg have sent letters to governments of U.S., EU, Australia and Canada asking them to ban entry for city officials behind the controversial gay propaganda ban.

 

BUSINESS

*Russia’s state-run United Aircraft Corporation said it would fix undercarriage defects found in the new Sukhoi Superjet (SSJ) 100 within a week, after one of its planes had to make an unplanned return to its departure airport on Friday.

*Russia's leading truck maker Kamaz saw its stock jump more than 8 percent in MICEX-RTS trade on Monday, after reports that an anti-trust watchdog had allowed German auto giant Daimler AG to increase its stake in the firm to 25 percent plus one share.