Russia's government has approved a project to produce hybrid cars running both on conventional fuel-powered engines and battery-powered electricity, Russian billionaire and project author Mikhail Prokhorov said on Wednesday.

A fighter plane of the Azerbaijani Armed Forces crashed on Wednesday during a training flight, killing the pilot, the country's Defense Ministry said.

Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko's Bloc will move into the opposition party without waiting until a new parliamentary majority is formed, the bloc's deputy head said on Wednesday.

Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko suffered a second political defeat in under a month on Wednesday when parliament voted for the dismissal of her government.

Ukraine's new President Viktor Yanukovych scored a new victory on Wednesday when his supporters rallied enough votes in parliament to dismiss the government headed by his political arch-rival Yulia Tymoshenko.

The Ukrainian parliament dismissed on Wednesday the government led by Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko.

Nino Burjanadze, a leading Georgian opposition figure, has flown to Moscow to seek to improve ties broken off after the August 2008 war between Russia and Georgia, a Georgian news agency reported on Wednesday.

The head of Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych's party said on Wednesday that Prime Minster Yulia Tymoshenko's policies had led to a decline in the population of the former Soviet republic.

Violence and corruption in Russia's legal system could ultimately spell the end for the Russian state as it is today, the jailed tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky said in a newspaper article published on Wednesday.

A slim majority of Ukrainians favor joining the European Union but almost two thirds oppose NATO membership, according to an opinion poll published on Tuesday.

Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych gave a strong hint on Tuesday that he may not recognize the independence of the former Georgian republics of South Ossetia and Abkhazia.

"I said before that we are against a politics of double standards," Yanukovych said, referring to Kosovo, which unilaterally declared independence from Serbia in February 2008.

"It was already obvious back then that ... frozen conflicts would only get worse. Another perfect example is South Ossetia," he added.

"It's my view that we must yet again underline that international law should apply to all without exceptions," he went on, saying that the recognition of South Ossetia and Abkhazia was "not currently on the agenda."

However, before his victory in February's polls, Yanukovych's Party of Regions called on then president Viktor Yushchenko's pro-Western administration to recognize the independence of South Ossetia and Abkhazia. Yanukovych also said Ukraine should recognize the republics after Russia's five-day war with Georgia over South Ossetia in August 2008.

Russia recognized the two republics' independence shortly after the war with Georgia, which began when Georgian forces attacked South Ossetia. Only Nicaragua, Venezuela and the tiny Pacific island state of Nauru have followed suit. Western powers have condemned Russia's move.

Many experts believe that Yanukovych, seen as pro-Russian during the election campaign, will "disappoint" Moscow, pledging friendship with the Kremlin while still trying to pursue Yushchenko's bid to take Ukraine into NATO and the EU.

Analysts have pointed out that Yanukovych has already snubbed Russia, making his first official trip abroad to Brussels, location of the EU headquarters, rather than Moscow after he was sworn in as president.

RIA Novosti