Main news of August 1

RUSSIA

* Russia's expedition aimed at symbolically claiming a vast section of the energy-rich Arctic reached the North Pole where it plans to make the first-ever dive below the Pole 

* The overhaul of a Russian-made aircraft carrier sold to India under a 2004 contract will be delayed indefinitely due to insufficient financing and poor management of the project, the Izvestia newspaper said

* Russia is determined to make an effective contribution to stabilizing the situation in the Sudanese province of Darfur, the Russian Foreign Ministry said

* A man diagnosed with legionnaires' disease died in Russia's Urals, bringing the death toll to four since the outbreak was reported July 19, local health officials said

* Russian-U.S. talks on missile defense in Europe ended in Washington with a U.S. invitation for Russian specialists to visit a missile base in Alaska

* Russia's Progress M-59 space cargo ship carrying garbage from the International Space Station undocked, and its unburned fragments will land in the Pacific Ocean at 23:26 Moscow time (7:26 p.m. GMT) 

* Russia's Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on the sidelines of the ASEAN meeting in Philippines:

- Russian officials never considered involving Georgia's breakaway province of Abkhazia in preparations for the 2014 Winter Olympics to be held the nearby Russian city of Sochi 

- the United States failed to produce convincing evidence of a need to deploy its missile shield in Central Europe at the first round of negotiations in Washington 

BUSINESS 

* Russia's Gazprom will reduce natural gas deliveries to Belarus 45% from August 3, the energy giant said

* Belgazprombank, a Belarusian bank controlled by Russian energy giant Gazprom, said it was ready to lend Minsk $500 million to cover its six-month debt for Russian natural gas supplies

* Russia's industrial safety watchdog, Rostekhnadzor, said the construction of a trunk pipeline as part of the giant Sakhalin II oil and gas project in the country's Far East has resumed

* The Moscow Arbitration Court upheld the environmental regulator's decision to suspend the Ochakovo brewery's operations for several days in early July 

* Alrosa, Russia's largest diamond producer, said its discovery of a major diamond deposit in northeastern Russia had been certified and could yield at least $3.5 billion

* The Board of Directors of Sukhoi approved the resignation of the aircraft manufacturer's general director, Mikhail Pogosyan, effective July 30, the corporation said

* A Gazprom spokesman said the Russian energy giant expected "major new discoveries" of oil and gas reserves under the Arctic Ocean, and had large-scale prospecting plans for the region 

* President Vladimir Putin signed a law permitting energy companies' security personnel to carry weapons, the Kremlin press office said 

* The Russian Stabilization Fund totaled 3.3 trillion rubles ($127 billion) as of August 1 against 3.1 trillion rubles ($122 billion) on July 1, the Finance Ministry said 

* The average price of Urals crude hit $74.24 per barrel in July against a record $69 last July, a source in the Russian economics ministry said 

WORLD

* Radioactive contamination could delay the work of experts from the UN nuclear watchdog to seal North Korea's nuclear facilities, shut down by Pyongyang under a disarmament deal agreed in Beijing in February, the Kyodo news agency said

* All 69 miners trapped for three days in a flooded coal mine in central China were rescued, the Xinhua news agency said

* Iran is undaunted by Washington's intention to provide substantial military aid to its allies in the Middle East, Iranian Defense Minister Mostafa Mohammad Najar said

* Japanese Agriculture Minister Norihiko Akagi announced his resignation following a devastating election defeat for the ruling Liberal Democratic Party over the weekend

* The leadership of Palestinian Islamist group Hamas dismissed earlier reports that it had been officially invited to Moscow for talks