RUSSIA

* Russia should not only be involved in orbiting foreign-made satellites and payloads but promote its hi-tech developments and services, President Vladimir Putin said

* Space tourist flights to the International Space Station could be stopped from 2010 due to a planned increase in crew numbers on the station, the head of the Russian space agency said

* The main unit of Russia's Air Force protecting western and central Russian airspace, including Moscow, will undergo a major overhaul next year, the commander of the 16th Air Army said

* A new missile early warning radar station will go into service by the end of the current year, the Russian Space Forces commander said

* Gen.l Yury Baluyevsky, chief of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces, said:

- Russia will be forced to strengthen security on its borders if Georgia and Ukraine join NATO

- Japan will not join the U.S. global missile defense network in the near future despite close cooperation with the U.S. on boosting its own missile defenses

*  Russia will need an additional $5 billion to finish the construction of its segment of the International Space Station (ISS) by 2015, the head of Russia's rocket and space corporation Energia said

* Russia's lower house of parliament ratified a global convention against smoking, which the World Health Organization says kills 5 million people across the world annually

* Russia has protested to Thailand over alleged violations in the rights of Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout, recently arrested in a police operation in Bangkok

* Konstantin Kosachyov, who heads the State Duma's international affairs committee, said recent comments by Poland's president alleging refusal to unblock Russia-EU partnership talks was evidence of western confrontation against Moscow

WORLD

* Iranian nuclear officials in Natanz have launched about 500 new centrifuges to enrich uranium, a source told the Iranian agency IRNA

* The U.S. cannot verify reports about recent advances in Iran's nuclear program, U.S. State Secretary Condoleezza Rice said

* Japan extended economic sanctions against North Korea for six more months citing a lack of progress in denuclearization talks and Pyongyang's failure to tackle past abductions of Japanese nationals

* Iran has reiterated its call for an international uranium enrichment center to be established on its soil, a deputy head of the country's atomic energy organization said

* India will soon announce a new global tender for 384 light helicopters to boost the combat capabilities of its Armed Forces, a national newspaper said

* Four Palestinians died, including a 12-year-old boy, and at least five were wounded in an Israeli raid on Gaza, local health officials said

* A 30-year-old woman died of bird flu in Egypt bringing the total death toll from the deadly H5N1 strain in the country to 22, the local health ministry said

* The Ukrainian Foreign Ministry confirmed that the crew of over 30 people on board a luxury French yacht captured by Somali pirates a week ago has been freed

* The office of the chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia has received a request from the Russian embassy in the Netherlands regarding a book by the tribunal's former chief prosecutor, Carla del Ponte

* Indian lawmakers have said they want stray dogs removed from the area around the parliament building for security reasons despite protests by animal rights activists

* Egypt confirmed that the Middle East 'mini-summit,' to be attended by the U.S. president, will take place in late May in Sharm el-Sheikh, MENA news agency said

BUSINESS

* Iran could replace Turkmenistan in the Western-backed Nabucco pipeline project designed to pump gas from the Caspian to Europe bypassing Russia, the EU's new ambassador in Azerbaijan said

* Russia is ready to start working on a feasibility study for the construction of a small- or medium-capacity nuclear power plant in Mongolia, the general director of the Rosatom state nuclear corporation said