* Russia rules out a military resolution of the Iranian nuclear problem, the foreign minister said
* The U.K. is waiting for Russia's help in releasing British sailors and marines detained by Iran, the British Ambassador in Russia said
* The United Nations secretariat should conduct an independent investigation into the detention of 15 British seamen by Iran, Russia's Foreign Ministry said
* A second British sailor, one of 15 detained last Friday in the Persian Gulf by Iranian authorities, has confessed to illegally entering Iranian territorial waters, Iran's news agency IRNA said
* Israel will not accept the return of Palestinian refugees even in exchange for peace with the Arab world, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said
* Matthew Bryza, deputy assistant secretary of state for European affairs denied a suggestion that air defense missiles could be deployed in Georgia or elsewhere in the Caucasus
* Russian President Vladimir Putin has not changed his position on the increase of the presidential term and has no intention of running a third time, the Kremlin press service said
* Russian State Duma Speaker Boris Gryzlov said he does not back a proposal to increase the presidential term to seven years
* The office of Georgia's state minister for conflict resolution described as "unfriendly" the Russian Foreign Ministry's earlier comment on the situation in Georgia's breakaway province of South Ossetia
* Sergei Mironov, Speaker of the Russian parliament upper house:
- proposed extending the presidential mandate to five-seven years and adding a third term
- was reelected speaker of the Russian parliament upper house by a majority of Federation Council members
* Ukraine's President Viktor Yushchenko will visit Moscow April 3, the foreign minister said
* Ukraine's president proposed legal liability for members of parliament who switched factions, saying the parliamentary majority must be based exclusively on election results, the presidential press service said
* Kyrgyz President Kurmanbek Bakiyev said he was ready to compromise with the majority of the country's political forces
* Kyrgyzstan's parliament approved opposition leader Almaz Atambayev as prime minister
* Turkmen President Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov was unanimously elected head of the Central Asian country's top legislative body, the People's Council
* Most UN Security Council members support Russia's proposal to send an international contact group to Kosovo, a UN Security Council representative said
* A commission at Russia's environmental watchdog in the Far Eastern Federal District has launched an investigation into the Sakhalin I oil and gas project, a commission spokesman said
* Russia and Kazakhstan are considering cooperating on a nuclear power plant project, the top Russian nuclear industry official said
* Russia and Afghanistan may postpone the signing of a bilateral agreement on the settlement of Afghan debt to the former U.S.S.R., which, according to Russian experts' estimates, totals $10 billion, a source in the Finance Ministry said
*Vnesheconombank (VEB) has confirmed its intention to buy a 10% stake in Sukhoi Civil Aircraft, a subsidiary of the state-owned Sukhoi holding, a senior official of the state-controlled bank said
* Exiled Russian tycoon Boris Berezovsky and fellow exile Ahmed Zakayev were questioned for almost four hours by Russian investigators working in the United Kingdom to probe last November's murder of former secret agent Alexander Litvinenko
* Foreigners trading at Russian retail markets must leave in two days, when a law barring them from their work places comes into effect April 1.
* Russian parliament's upper house passed in the third and final reading a revised bill, initially proposing to ban lawmakers and other officials from using the terms "dollar" and "euro" in domestic economic debates
* A district military court in Moscow sentenced retired Colonel Valentin Shabaturov, accused of treason and espionage, to 12 years in prison
