* Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Yakovenko said the government was set to allocate more than $40 million to combat bird flu in the former Soviet Union

* Admiral Vladimir Masorin, the Russian Navy's commander-in-chief, said the Russian-Ukrainian lighthouse dispute threatened all bilateral agreements on the Black Sea Fleet

* Major General Andrei Popov, the commander of the Russian Group of Forces in the Caucasus, said the Georgian military police had tried to seize the Russian military base near the Black Sea port of Batumi Friday night, but that the incident was settled shortly after through diplomatic channels

* The Russian Foreign Ministry said a Russian delegation had left for the Middle East to observe Palestinian parliamentary elections January 25

* Russian tennis players Anastasia Myskina and Nikolai Davydenko advanced to the fourth round of the Australian Open

* Russian energy monopoly Unified Energy System said no restrictions in power supplies would be imposed on Moscow this weekend

* Moscow Mayor Yury Luzhkov said the city would gladly receive former Yugoslavian leader and accused war criminal Slobodan Milosevic for medical treatment