* Sergei Ivanov said Russia planned to complete a "total system" to defend its border with Georgia before 2008
* Russia's financial watchdog, the Audit Chamber, said an audit of public spending in troubled Chechnya had shown that 4.1 million rubles (about $149,000) of budget funding were used inappropriately in 2005
* A Progress M-56 cargo ship with equipment, fuel, oxygen, drinking water and food on board was launched from the Baikonur space center to the International Space Station, a Mission Control official said
* Kyrgyzstan's security service said it had detained ex-President Askar Akayev's daughter for questioning as she tried to enter the country from neighboring Kazakhstan
* Askar Akayev's daughter was released after giving evidence to prosecutors in a case involving several of her relatives, a family lawyer said
* The head of Russian Railways said that the national railroads monopolist may buy leading business daily and publishing house Kommersant, estimated at an approximate $350-400 million
* Russia is against Iran developing the knowledge it would need to become a nuclear power, a Kremlin source said
* President Vladimir Putin said Russia planned to reinforce its airbase in the Central Asian republic of Kyrgyzstan
* Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Zhukov said:
- the government was planning to create a special agency to oversee Russia's customs checkpoints
- the government was preparing to submit to parliament a comprehensive package of long-term changes to Russia's tax laws
* Moscow Arbitration Court has registered a lawsuit filed by a Yukos shareholder to invalidate the appointment of U.S. citizen Steven Theede as company president
* One Tajik national died and another was seriously wounded after being stabbed in downtown Moscow
* Iran's Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki said he hoped the "nuclear file" on the country's controversial atomic program would be returned to the competence of the IAEA
* President of Kyrgyzstan Kurmanbek Bakiyev arrived in Moscow on his first official foreign visit since he came to power last July
