WORLD
* A magnitude 7.1 earthquake hit northeast Japan and a tsunami warning was issued, the U.S. Geological Survey reported
* Four foreign journalists have been missing in Libya for several days after being detained and taken away by Libyan troops in the country’s war-ravaged east, the Spanish national television said
* Georgia will be technically ready to join NATO in two to three years, Minister for Euro-Atlantic Integration Issues Giorgi Baramidze said
RUSSIA
* Russia needs to increase its presence on the global space market and increase its share of launches from 40% to 50%, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said
* The Russian government earmarked about 200 billion rubles ($7 billion) in funding for space programs in 2010-11, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said
* The Russian Prosecutor General’s Office handed over to Poland 11 volumes of declassified documents related to the massacre of over 20,000 Polish prisoners of war in Western Russia in 1940, a spokesman for the prosecutor’s office said
BUSINESS
* Ukraine could save $8 billion a year on gas, if it joins the post-Soviet customs union of Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan, Gazprom Deputy CEO Valery Golubev said
* Russia may admit foreign airlines to its domestic market if Russian airlines fail to cope with increasing passenger flows on internal routes, Russian business daily Kommersant reported
* Russia will supply grain to Jordan to make up for the shortfall that resulted from a grain export ban imposed last year as a result of a severe drought in the country, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said