WORLD
* UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon will be in Moscow on March 19 for the Mideast quartet meeting before heading to Israel, the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, a spokesman for the UN Secretary General said
* Israel announced plans to build a new nuclear reactor to reduce the country"s dependence on imported hydrocarbons, raising the specter of increased international scrutiny of Israel"s nuclear program
* A key Ukrainian politician, Arseniy Yatsenyuk, declined President Viktor Yanukovych"s proposal to hold a high post in the new cabinet, the presidential press office said
* The Palestinians may unilaterally declare statehood if resumed peace talks with Israel fail, an advisor to the Palestinian National Administration said
* The U.S. Embassy in Kyrgyzstan denied that Washington was seeking to establish a military base in the south of the Central Asian state, saying it was funding a training center for Kyrgyz troops
RUSSIA