Main news of August 21

RUSSIA

* MAKS-2007, an aviation exhibition held every two years, opened in the town of Zhukovsky, near Moscow

* The decision to go ahead with the deployment of U.S. missile defense elements in the Czech Republic is a severe mistake, Army Gen. Yury Baluyevsky, chief of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces, said at a meeting with Martin Bartak, first deputy defense minister of the Czech Republic

* Russia dismantled nine outdated Topol mobile missile systems in August under a major international treaty on strategic arms reductions, the Strategic Missile Forces said

* The Russian and European space agencies will develop a manned transport spaceship for flights to the International Space Station, the Moon and Mars, Anatoly Perminov, the head of the Russian agency, said

* A Moscow court postponed until September 5 a trial in absentia of fugitive oligarch Boris Berezovsky on charges of embezzling millions of rubles from Russia's flagship air carrier, Aeroflot, in the 1990s

* Six-nation working group talks on North Korea's nuclear disarmament, concluded in Moscow, provided a valuable forum for improving mutual trust, Ambassador at Large Vladimir Rakhmanin said

WORLD

* Tehran is prepared to share information on its controversial nuclear program with the United Nations nuclear watchdog, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said

* U.S. President George W. Bush reiterated Washington's commitment to international status for the Arctic shelf during a meeting with Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper, a senior White House official said

* Experts from Estonia, Poland and the U.K. concurred with Georgia that an unexploded missile found in the south Caucasus country in early August was Russian-made and launched from a plane flying from Russia

* The UN Security Council extended by six months the mandate of African Union peacekeepers in Somalia, torn by clan wars, the organization said in a unanimous resolution

* The Endeavour shuttle successfully landed at Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida, at 12:32 p.m. EDT (4:32 p.m. GMT) after a turbulent trip to the International Space Station, NASA said

* Three Islamist Palestinian fighters were killed in an Israeli air raid in the center of the Gaza Strip, a Gaza City radio station reported, citing eyewitnesses

* Two Palestinian children aged 10 and 12 were killed and another child was severely wounded in an Israeli attack in north Gaza, a spokesman for a local hospital said

* Hurricane Dean, which tore into Mexico's east coast Tuesday reaching the highest category for a tropical storm, weakened to Category 2, the U.S. National Hurricane Center said

* Ukraine's Communists opened a makeshift museum to victims of U.S. imperialism in the central square of Simferopol in the Crimea, as a riposte to anti-Soviet memorials in Kiev and Washington

BUSINESS

* U.S. aircraft-manufacturing giant Boeing signed an agreement with Russia's VSMPO-Avisma, the world's largest titanium producer, to set up a joint venture to make components for the Dreamliner passenger aircraft

* Leasing company Ilyushin Finance and State Transportation Company Rossia signed a leasing agreement for six An-148 aircraft 

* Some $400-500 million will be invested in the development of two of Ukraine's offshore natural gas deposits, state-owned gas producer Naftogaz said

* Russian economics minister, German Gref, said:

- Russia's international reserves increased by $112.5 billion in the first seven months of 2007, to exceed $420 billion

- Russia's gross domestic product grew 8% in July and 7.9% in January-July 2007

* Italian oil and gas giant Eni S.p.A. may have its license to Kazakhstan's largest oil field on the Caspian shelf revoked over breached environmental regulations, said Nurlan Iskakov, the minister of energy and mineral resources