Main news of August 6

RUSSIA

* Russia could start producing the S-400 Triumf air defense complex for export from 2009, Igor Ashurbeili, the head of the Almaz central design bureau, said

* Russia's veterinary watchdog suspended imports of meat products from Britain as of August 6 due to the outbreak of foot and mouth disease, a news release said

* Russia will build two factories for production of the famous Kalashnikov assault rifle and ammunition in Venezuela by 2010, Russian arms manufacturer Izhevsk Mechanical Plant said

* Russia signed a deal with Afghanistan to write off around 90% of the wartorn country's Soviet-era debt totaling $11.1 billion, with the remainder to be repaid over 23 years

* The Moscow City Court sentenced former Yukos security chief Alexei Pichugin to life imprisonment for involvement in several murders

WORLD

* Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said he hoped to resume talks soon with the Palestinian National Authority on the final status of the Palestinian state, which broke down almost seven years ago

* UN experts started inspecting Japan's largest nuclear power plant, damaged by a powerful earthquake last month

* Four inspectors from the UN nuclear watchdog arrived in Tehran to discuss further technical issues in talks aimed at allaying international concerns over Iran's nuclear program, the IRNA news agency said

* Russian natural gas supplies to Greece were interrupted after a blast hit a gas pipeline in Bulgaria, Greek media reported

* North and South Korea were involved in a brief exchange of border gunfire a day before the start of a new round of working-level talks on North Korea's nuclear disarmament, a South Korean news agency

* Serbia is ready to grant broad autonomy to Kosovo, but only if the province remains under Serbian sovereignty, Dusan Prorokovic, president of a parliamentary commission for Kosovo and Metohija, said

BUSINESS

* Russia's Stabilization Fund yielded income of 9.5% in foreign currency over the year, Russian Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin said

* Mikhail Prokhorov, one of the two key shareholders of Norilsk Nickel, called for the early election of a new board of directors, the Russian metals giant said in a statement

* Ukraine may push for higher transit rates for Russian natural gas supplies to Europe, a deputy secretary of the Ukrainian National Security and Defense Council said

* A Moscow court has refused to order the seizure of securities held by private oil group RussNeft, the head of the court's press service said

* Belarus will pay its remaining debt for Russian natural gas deliveries in full by Friday, a spokesman for the country's gas pipeline operator Beltransgaz said