WORLD
*The EU's top diplomat confirmed plans to impose a travel ban on Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko over a clampdown on the opposition after the disputed elections
*NATO's vision for European missile defense is two independent, but coordinated systems, the alliance's secretary general, Anders Fogh Rasmussen, said
*Jaroslaw Kaczynski, the Polish opposition leader whose twin brother died in last year's plane crash in western Russia, blamed Russia for the tragedy and urged a rejection of Russia's report on its causes
*BP's latest deal in Russia will not change the oil company's directions or affect its interests with the United States, BP's CEO said
*A report by the Interstate Aviation Committee (MAK) on the Polish presidential plane crash in western Russia is "one-sided," Polish President Bronislaw Komorowski said
*Moscow will hold talks with Tel Aviv on the issue of a modern independent Palestinian state with its capital in East Jerusalem, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said
*Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, re-elected for the fourth term late last year, will take his oath of office on Friday, his press service said in a statement
*The parliaments of North European and Baltic States should address the sale of French warships to Russia, Lithuania parliament speaker Irena Degutiene said
*Last week's $16 billion share swap deal between Russia's oil major Rosneft and BP may trigger other investors' interest to the country's ambitious privatization plan, Presidential aide Arkady Dvorkovich said
RUSSIA
*Russia's oil major Rosneft has no claims to Russian-British oil company TNK-BP, Rosneft CEO Eduard Khudaynatov said
*Russian President Dmitry Medvedev took an Epiphany dip in the holy waters of the Jordan River
*A court in Russia's Krasnodar Territory on Wednesday sentenced the son of a former Georgian security minister to three years in prison for the illegal crossing of the border between Abkhazia and Russia
*Russia's St. Petersburg Culture Committee has unveiled a guidebook for migrants, nonresident students and tourists to help them adapt to life in the city, the committee's press service said
*Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said that retired military personnel would receive higher pensions starting in 2012
*Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has instructed the government to consider the possibility of halting the financing of budget expenditures through additional revenues from oil and gas sales in 2011, the Kremlin said
*Russia's RuLeaks.net website was blocked following publication of photos of Prime Minister Vladimir Putin's alleged $1 billion palace, Russian Piracy Party leader Pavel Rassudov said
*The new jail term handed to former oil tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky may prompt Western businesses to look closer at the risks of investing in Russia, the Russian president's chief economic advisor Arkady Dvorkovich said
*The delivery of the first Sukhoi Superjet 100 to Armenian Armavia airlines is scheduled for next month, officials in the Russian Far Eastern Khabarovsk region said
*A traffic cop was seriously injured when he was hit by the car of a regional official in downtown Moscow
