* Two regions in southeast Siberia - the Chita Region and the Aginsk Buryat Autonomous Area, held a referendum on their unification to form the Zabaikalsky Territory in an effort to provide an economic boost and raise local living standards
* A Yemeni student was attacked in the city of Voronezh in European Russia in an apparently racially motivated assault, a senior aide to the regional prosecutor said
* Russia's Sport state television channel will broadcast the Russian soccer Premier League matches in 2007 under an agreement with NTV-plus commercial TV company, the company's general director said
* A Russian delegation will fly to Iran to continue talks on the further construction of the Bushehr nuclear power plant in the south of the Islamic Republic, the project's contractor Atomstroyexport said
* Iran expects Russia to supply nuclear fuel for Iran's Bushehr nuclear power plant by the end of March, despite disagreements over the financing of the plant's construction, Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Mohammad Ali Hosseini said
* Nikolai Yurgel has been appointed as the new head of the Federal Agency for the Oversight of Public Health and Social Affairs, a health watchdog accountable to the Health and Social Development Ministry, the agency's press office said
* A militant on a federal wanted list blew up himself and a woman in refusal to surrender to police in the North Caucasus Republic of Ingushetia, the local interior ministry said
* Rescuers have saved a total of 176 fishermen from drifting ice in the Gulf of Finland in northwestern Russia, the regional rescue service said
