News of the Day, 18:00 Moscow time

* A Russian warship spilled about 20-30 tons of oil while refueling off the coast of Ireland in mid-February, a Navy spokesman, Capt 1st Rank Igor Dygalo, said

* The Russian Far Eastern city of Khabarovsk has been selected as the venue for a Russia-EU summit to be held in late May, a presidential aide, Sergei Prikhodko, announced

* Russia's Prosecutor General's Office has appealed the not guilty verdict in the murder trial of journalist Anna Politkovskaya, a lawyer said

* Russia will spend some 100 billion rubles ($2.8 bln) to tackle rising unemployment in the country, Health and Social Development Minister Tatyana Golikova was quoted as saying

* Russia's state-controlled Sberbank has granted the country's largest independent oil company Lukoil two one-year loans, worth $500 million and 17 billion rubles ($475 million), the company said

* Russia's new-generation aircraft carrier will be nuclear powered and have a displacement of up to 60,000 metric tons, a United Shipbuilding Corporation executive said

* An agreement on the second $1 billion tranche of Russia's $2 billion, 15-year stabilization loan to Belarus will be signed in the next few days, Belarusian Prime Minister Sergei Sidorsky said

* Russia's foreign debt, including the former Soviet debt, dropped by 8.8% or $3.9 billion year-on-year to $40.5 billion in 2008, the Foreign Ministry said

* The Russian government will give emergency humanitarian assistance to Zimbabwe, which is suffering from economic meltdown and a massive cholera epidemic, the Russian Foreign Ministry said

* Iran would be able to put its Bushehr nuclear power plant into operation on its own if Russia refused to do so, a former Iranian president, Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, said

* Ukraine is likely to submit an application to the International Monetary Fund for the second installment of a $16.43 billion loan on March 3, the acting head of the National Bank, Anatoliy Shapovalov, said

* The number of Bangladeshi border guard officers confirmed dead following the recent mutiny in the capital of Dhaka has climbed to 55, national media reported