* The radical opposition in Kyrgyzstan, led by a former premier, said it would seek the president's immediate resignation unless he agrees to share his powers with parliament within 24 hours
* Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko, who signed a decree Monday dissolving parliament, intends to introduce direct presidential rule in the country, a Socialist Party member said
* There are no grounds to expect a U.S. attack on Iran in the next few days, Deputy Russian Foreign Minister Alexander Losyukov said, commenting on media reports that the United States might launch a military campaign against the Islamic Republic in early April
* Colonel General Yury Solovyov, commander of Russia's Air Defense Forces Special Command, said:
- Iran has air defense systems capable of repelling possible U.S. missile strikes;
- New S-400 Triumf air defense missiles will be put on combat duty around Moscow in late August
* Ramzan Kadyrov - the de-facto leader of Chechnya since 2004, when his father, then-president Akhmad Kadyrov, was killed in a terrorist bombing - was sworn in as president of the troubled Russian republic
* Power Machines (Silovye Mashiny) could float the first batch of its additional share issue in July 2007, the Russian engineering giant's CEO, Boris Vainzikher, said
* The U.K.'s intrusion into Iran's territorial waters was an attempt by the West to test the republic's defenses, a senior aide to Iran's supreme leader said
* Standard & Poor's downgraded Ukraine's rating to negative from stable due to the deteriorating political situation in the country and associated economic policy risks, the international ratings agency said
* Ukraine's parliament did not consider impeaching pro-Western President Viktor Yushchenko, Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych said amid a continuing political crisis in the country
* Fifteen British naval personnel released by Iranian authorities Wednesday after almost two weeks in custody returned to the United Kingdom
* Russia's Ministry of Health and Social Development will cease to exist in its current form and the minister will step down, parliament's lower house speaker said
* The Russian Ground Forces will enlist more than 100,000 soldiers and NCOs on a contract basis by the end of 2007, an aide to the forces' commander-in-chief said
* The leader of Russia's Agrarian Party withdrew from the parliamentary faction of the pro-presidential United Russia party, saying his party will participate in the December lower house elections on its own
* A defense lawyer in the case of the murder of the Central Bank money-laundering regulator, Andrei Kozlov, cited a prosecutor as saying the investigation would be over in a week
* Russia's food safety watchdog said it imposed a temporary ban on imports of poultry products from the U.S. state of West Virginia, starting April 6, over bird flu fears
* Ukraine's Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych walked out of an emergency session of the National Security Council the president convened amid spiraling political tensions, the premier's press spokesman said
* Exiled Russian tycoon Boris Berezovsky pledged legal and other support for two key figures involved in the case of the murdered former secret agent Alexander Litvinenko
* Rostelecom, Russia's largest long-distance telecom services provider, said the Moscow Arbitration Court partially granted its claim against the federal tax authorities, which had levied a hefty back tax against the company last year
