Main News of March 2

A roundup of what has happened in the past 24 hours

WORLD

* Medical examiners have determined that the death of a 3-year-old adopted Russian boy in Texas earlier this year was accidental but an investigation continues and criminal charges have not been ruled out, officials announced

* US President Barack Obama criticized Republican leadership in the US Congress after the White House and lawmakers failed to secure a deal to halt a mandatory $85 billion in across-the-board federal budget cuts from going into effect at midnight

* Ukraine will start talks with the International Monetary Fund on a new loan only after reviewing its current gas contract with Russia, Ukrainian Prime Minister Mykola Azarov said

* A temporary cover will be built above the collapsed section of Chernobyl’s nuclear power plant, the chief engineer said

* Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez is has been undergoing chemotherapy treatment and is continuing “his battle for life," the country’s vice president has said

* Egyptian protesters torched a police station in the Suez Canal city of Port Said as US Secretary of State John Kerry landed in Cairo on Saturday for talks to help overcome the country's economic crisis

* UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and international peace envoy Lakhdar Brahimi have expressed “deep frustration” over the ongoing conflict in Syria and urged the international community to step up collective effort to end the crisis

* Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi said embattled Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad will run for the country’s next presidential election

* Georgia's Agriculture Minister Davit Kirvalidze said he is confident that Georgian wine which is expected to return to the Russian market this spring will be of best quality

RUSSIA

* Thousands came to a state-endorsed rally against foreign adoptions in Moscow, intended as a show of public support of the government, but marred by reports about participants coerced or paid for attending

* Russian officials reacted with a mixture of anger and suspicion after officials in the United States said the death of a 3-year-old Russian child in Texas was an accident

* Russian opposition, often accused of ignoring the everyday concerns of the general public, held on Saturday a “Social March” aimed against policies of the Moscow City Hall, but in absence of a clear news peg, attendance figures were low and participants skeptical

* Some 12,000 pro-Kremlin activists, according to police, rallied in central Moscow to urge the government to extend a ban on US families adopting Russian children to all foreign nationals and ease domestic adoption rules

* Russia is facing a ‘real war’ aimed at hampering the country’s legal deliveries of weapons to Syria, the head of the Federal Service for Military and Technical Cooperation has said

* Moscow police will investigate complaints against the organizers of Saturday’s state-endorsed rally against foreign adoptions who allegedly refused to pay its participants for attending the event

* Russia is concerned over spreading terrorism and drug threats from northern Afghanistan to neighboring Central Asian states, the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement

* Self-exiled former Bank of Moscow chief executive Andrei Borodin, who has been granted political asylum in Britain, said he would seek his removal from the Interpol international wanted list

* Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Grigory Karasin met with Georgian prime minister’s special envoy on Russia, Zurab Abashidze in Prague on Friday to discuss visa regime, Georgia’s participation at the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, wine exports to Russia, direct flights between Moscow and Tbilisi and other issues

* Pro-Kremlin activists are to rally in central Moscow on Saturday to urge the government to extend a ban on US families adopting Russian children to all foreign nationals

* A Uzbek national has been shot dead by unknown assailants, police said

SPACE

* Specialists of a private US company, SpaceX, have started all thrusters of its Dragon capsule launched on Friday, SpaceX founder and CEO Elon Musk said on Saturday, Moscow time