WORLD
*NATO’s Euro missile defense program will become fully operational by 2018, the alliance’s chief Anders Fogh Rasmussen said
*The Syrian opposition condemned Russia and China on Wednesday for vetoing a UN Security Council draft resolution urging the Syrian regime to immediately stop violence against protesters or face “targeted measures,” the Sawa radio station reported, quoting opposition leader Burhan Ghalyoun
*Any UN resolution on Yemen should reflect the actual situation in that country, Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman Alexander Lukashevich said
*France together with Libya’s Transitional National Council (TNC) and other allies are working to prevent the spread of weapons from Libya to other countries in the region, a spokesman for the French Foreign Ministry said
*Moscow will oppose any attempt to “abuse” UN Security Council decisions to achieve the overthrow of “undesirable regimes,” the Russian Foreign Ministry said
RUSSIA
*Jailed tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky will have to choose between personal meetings with relatives and interviews with journalists, Russian Federal Penitentiary Service official said
*Russia’s Right Cause party will return almost 650 million rubles ($21 million) of donations made to support its former leader Mikhail Prokhorov, the billionaire’s spokesperson said
*Vladimir Zhirinovsky, the outspoken leader of Russia’s ultra-nationalist Liberal Democratic Party (LDPR), promised on Wednesday that some 10,000 officials will be jailed after next presidential elections in March
*Minor airlines must get consolidated or merged with leading air companies or quit the market, a deputy prime minister said during a business forum in Moscow