Main news of September 3

RUSSIA

* Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said:

- he expects negotiations with the United States on the Pentagon's controversial plans to deploy missile defense elements in Central Europe to achieve results

- he denied allegations that Russia could deploy nuclear facilities on Belarusian territory as incorrect

- he regrets British intrigues against Russia

* The Moscow District Military Court ruled the arrest of FSB Lt. Col. Pavel Ryaguzov, a suspect in the murder of journalist Anna Politkovskaya, was illegal

* Two Europeans and four Russians have been selected to participate in an experimental Mars mission simulation, Mars-500, a medical institute spokesman said

* Fragments of the skeletal remains of last Russian Tsar Nicholas II's family were brought to Yekaterinburg, in the Urals, for comparison with recently found remains allegedly belonging to the Tsar's children

* A gunman suspected of murdering three men at their home in Ingushetia was killed and another suspect arrested in a special operation in the North Caucasus republic, local security officials said 

WORLD

* South Korea welcomes an agreement between Washington and Pyongyang to shut down the North Korean nuclear program by the end of 2007, the South Korean presidential administration said

* Japan doubts that the U.S. will de-list North Korea as a sponsor of terrorism without Tokyo's consent, the Kyodo Tsushin agency said, citing a government source who wished to remain anonymous

* The Russian Foreign Ministry demanded the immediate release of two North Ossetian members of the Joint Peacekeeping Force sentenced in Georgia to two months imprisonment

* The Taliban warned it would attack South Korea's embassy in Kabul if Seoul is found to have broken its promise to remove all its citizens from Afghanistan, the Yonhap news agency reported

* India plans to control up to 10% of commercial space launches in the world within five years, the director of the Indian Space Research Organization said

* Greek firefighters have put out or isolated three remaining wildfires burning on the Peloponnese Peninsula, in southern Greece, the country's fire service said

* Boris Berezovsky, the fugitive Russian oligarch, is suing Ukrainian politicians for nearly $23 million he says he provided to fund the country's 2004 "orange revolution," Ukrainian justice authorities said

* Russia's envoy to a 21-nation Pacific Rim economic alliance said Australia and other countries in the region support Moscow's bid to join the World Trade Organization

* A Thai national who murdered two Russian female tourists in a resort 70 miles southeast of Bangkok, in February, has been sentenced to death, a Russian Embassy spokesman in Bangkok said

* Russian businessman and politician Vladimir Gruzdev, who dived to the bottom of the Arctic Ocean last month, is to be Russia's first space tourist, a respected Russian business daily said

BUSINESS

* Duty on Russian oil exports will rise by $26.4 to a record $250.3 per metric ton as of October 1, in line with world market trends, a Finance Ministry official said

* Russia's Finance Ministry said the Stabilization Fund increased 145 billion rubles from August 1 to September 1 to 3.4 trillion rubles ($132.9 billon)

* Russian aluminum giant United Company RusAl said  it was considering establishing a bauxite and alumina processing complex in Indonesia

* The Eurasian Development Bank (EADB), established by Russia and Kazakhstan in 2006 to boost investment across the former Soviet Union, said it is ready to invest $2.5-3 billion in various projects in Tatarstan