Main news of August 24

RUSSIA

* Russia will not accept proposals to destroy chemical weapons decommissioned by other countries on its territory, said Lieutenant General Valery Kapashin, chief of the Federal Department for the Safe Storage and Liquidation of Chemical Weapons

* Russian Tu-22M3 strategic bombers successfully conducted a series of tactical exercises in the south of the country and in Kazakhstan this week, an Air Force spokesman said

* Belarus wants Russia to supply them with the advanced S-400 Triumf (SA-21 Growler) air defense system in 2010, a source in Russian military-industrial circles said

* Russia will present air defense systems, military and naval equipment, as well as dual-purpose products at the 11th Defense Services Asia (DSA) exhibition next year in Malaysia, a spokesman for Russia's sole arms exporter said

* Russia's environmental regulator said it had found new legal violations committed by Gazprom-controlled Sakhalin Energy, which operates the Sakhalin II oil and gas project off the country's Pacific Coast

* Russia's prosecutors have reopened an investigation into the execution of the Romanov family following the alleged discovery of the remains of Tsar Nicholas's II son and daughter in a Urals region in late July

* Two policemen and a Chechen gunman suspected of involvement in a series of attacks against police and civilians were killed in a shootout in Chechnya, the local interior minister said

* Restrictions on liquids permitted on airplanes, similar to those imposed in Europe and the United States following terrorist threats, will come into force in Russia Monday 

WORLD

* Hurricane Dean has taken the lives of at least 10 people in Mexico, with downpours causing rivers to overflow, and powerful winds damaging buildings across the country, local rescue services said

* South Korea will send 37.4 billion won (US$39.6 million) in construction materials and equipment to help North Korea recover from flood devastation, Unification Minister Lee Jae-joung said

* India could order another 80 aircraft in addition to the 126 fighters it wants for its Air Force, increasing the value of the deal to an estimated $16 billion, a Defense Ministry official said

* Italy's Prime Minister Romano Prodi will visit Kazakhstan soon in an attempt to settle all outstanding issues with the country's government, which has threatened to revoke an oil field license from the Italian oil and gas giant Eni, an Italian newspaper reported

* At least six people have died in southern Greece as a total of 120 forest fires continue to ravage through the country, a spokesman for the Greek firefighting service said

BUSINESS

* A recent drop in Russian oil supplies to Germany is not due to pipeline network problems, but down to undersupply by private companies, state oil transporter Transneft said

* LUKoil Overseas, the international projects operator of Russia's largest independent crude producer LUKoil said it has completed the construction of a section of a trunk gas pipeline in Uzbekistan

* Russia's Agriculture Minister Alexei Gordeyev said the idea to set up an international organization to coordinate grain markets has been backed by Ukraine and Kazakhstan

* Russia's Federal Anti-Monopoly Service (FAS) gave Italian power company Enel SpA authorization to acquire over 70% in the wholesale generating company OGK-5, sending the latter's shares 8% up on the Moscow Interbank Currency Exchange

* Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Fradkov signed a directive to reduce import duty from 20% to 10% for business planes with carrying capacity of 15-20 metric tons, an economics ministry source said

* Sberbank, Russia's largest state-controlled savings bank, said its net profit calculated to International Financial Reporting Standards rose 34.3% to 26.7 billion ($1.04 billion) in the first quarter of 2007, year-on-year