* More bird deaths were registered in the southeast of the Moscow Region, the local agriculture ministry said
* Russia's Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said the current developments on the global political scene did not mean the return to a serious confrontation between Russia and the West
* The deployment of a U.S. anti-missile base in Poland will guarantee that Warsaw will no longer be in Russia's sphere of influence, Polish Prime Minister Jaroslaw Kaczynski said
* A senior Russian government official said the development of state-of-the-art precision-guided weapons is a priority for Russia's military-industrial complex
* The deployment of elements of the U.S. missile defense system in Central Europe could undermine relations between Russia and NATO, a former prime minister of Slovakia said
* An American diplomat said his country was puzzled by Russia's anxiety about the deployment of U.S. missile defenses in central Europe while a senior Russian military official reiterated national security concerns
* The chief of the Russian General Staff praised RS-20 Voyevoda missile systems (NATO codename SS-18 Satan) and said the extension of their service life is linked to Russia's security
* Iran did not make payments in February for the construction of a nuclear power plant in the south of the country, Russia's nuclear agency said
* Suspending or freezing the construction of the Bushehr nuclear power plant in Iran is out of the question, an official with the Russian nuclear equipment export monopoly said
* Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said his country was prepared for talks on its disputed nuclear program, but would not meet the precondition of halting uranium enrichment
* A court in Moscow ruled against damages sought by residents of a Chechen village allegedly devastated in an operation by the Russian Defense Ministry a year and a half ago
* The Moscow Arbitration Court recognized bankrupt VIP-Bank, whose former board chairman, Alexei Frenkel, has been charged with masterminding the murder of senior banking regulator Andrei Kozlov last September
* Slovakia is prepared to establish a consortium with Russia to complete the construction of the third and fourth stages of its nuclear power plant, the Slovakian economics minister said
* An appeals court upheld the status of Russian as a regional language in eastern Ukraine, a regional authority said
* The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) is interested in cooperation with the regional post-Soviet security group to fight terrorism and human trafficking, an OSCE official said
* Russia's State Transportation Company said it rejects the findings of the Interstate Aviation Committee on the cause of a passenger jet crash in the summer of 2006
* Russian arms exports reached $6.4 billion in 2006, but are expected to hit $7.5 billion in 2007, first deputy Prime Minister Sergei Ivanov said
* The administration head of a prestigious borough in southwestern Moscow, Sergei Burkotov, was gunned down along with his driver near the capital Monday night, police said
* A Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman said regular contacts between Israeli and Palestinian leaders are crucial to breaking the deadlock in talks on the Middle East peace process
* Russia's LUKoil crude producer said it would finalize the purchase of a gasoline station network in Europe from the U.S.-based energy giant ConocoPhillips in the second quarter of 2007 at a cost of more than $400 million, the company's president said
* The order issued by Eduard Ulman, accused in a long-running case on the alleged murder of six civilians by Russian army officers in Chechnya five years ago, was in line with his operational task, a defense witness said
* A Russian trade vessel, the Pashkovsky, is in distress in the Sea of Okhotsk about 10 nautical miles west of the Kamchatka Peninsula in Russia's Far East, the Emergency Situations Ministry said
