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Main News of March 8

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A roundup of what has happened in the past 24 hours 08.03.2013, Sputnik International

2013-03-08T19:59+0000

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Main News of March 8

19:59 GMT 08.03.2013

A roundup of what has happened in the past 24 hours

WORLD

The United States vowed to aggressively defend itself and its allies after North Korea furiously threatened a pre-emptive nuclear strike against the US in the face of sanctions handed down by the United Nations (UN) Security Council on Thursday.

Venezuelan Vice President Nicolas Maduro has assured Russian President Vladimir Putin by phone that strategic partnership between the two countries would continue following the death of Hugo Chavez, the Kremlin reported.

North Korea is annulling non-aggression deals with South Korea, the Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of Korea said in a statement, according to the state Korean Central News Agency (KCNA).

US Ambassador to Russia Michael McFaul denied that hundreds of Russian legislators may be blacklisted for US entry for supporting a ban on adoptions of Russian children by Americans.

US Department of State postponed issung a human rights award to an Egyptian activist whose Twitter account turned out to contain anti-Semitic and pro-terrorism posts – added by hackers, she claims.

Two asteroids, one of them bigger in size than the celestial body that burst over Russia last month, will fly by the Earth on Saturday, though not as close as to threaten collision.

The Syrian government says it is trying to free UN peacekeepers taken hostage by insurgent fighters last week in the disputed Golan Heights region with no outside help, Syria's representative at the UN, Bashar Jafari, said.

Osama bin Laden’s son-in-law, a man prosecutors say worked alongside the 9/11 mastermind in a “campaign of terror,” pleaded not guilty in a New York City federal courtroom on Friday to a charge of conspiracy to kill Americans.

Over 60 Arab protesters and several Israeli policemen were injured in clashes between Arabs and Israeli police at the Al Aqsa mosque complex on Jerusalem's Temple Mount, Palestinian news agency VAFA reported.

The official funeral ceremony for Venezuela's late President Hugo Chavez began at the army academy in the capital Caracas.

RUSSIA

Russia could consider steps toward demilitarizing the conflict in Syria, but wants first some “explanations” about foreign weapons supplies to the Syrian opposition, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said.

Russia would not pressure Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to step down and welcomes Syrian opposition’s tentative willingness to hold talks with his regime, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Thursday.

A Russian businessman in the city of Volgograd survived a gun attack on his car despite being riddled with 16 bullets from an assault rifle, regional investigators said.

Moscow police detained 16 feminist protesters for violating public order during a sanctioned rally in the city center, the Interior Ministry reported.

The European Commission gave approval to Russian state-owned oil giant Rosneft's purchase of the TNK-BP oil company, and says it sees the deal as no barrier to competition in the European oil market.

SPORT

A calamitous goalkeeping blunder handed Krasnodar a 2-1 win over Amkar Perm in the Russian football Premier League.

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