Main news of September 4

RUSSIA

* About 500 chickens in the south Russia's Krasnodar Territory have died of bird flu, a local official said

* Russian presidential aide Sergei Prikhodko said: 

- President Vladimir Putin will set out for a five-day tour this week to Indonesia, Australia and the United Arab Emirates, the first visits by a Russian leader in the history of relations with the countries

- The Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit opening in Sydney Saturday will see Russia announce plans to invest in the forum, and confirm its determination to host the 2012 summit

- George W. Bush and Vladimir Putin are to discuss U.S. plans for anti-missile technology in Europe at an September 8-9 Asia-Pacific leaders' summit in Sydney

* Direct talks between Belgrade and Pristina on the status of Kosovo will be held in New York at the end of September, Alexander Botsan-Harchenko, the Russian envoy to the talks, said

* More than 10 metric tons of drugs were seized in a joint operation of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) member states, the Russian anti-drug service said

* Moscow's Tverskoi District Court has ruled that a city ban on holding a Gay Pride Parade May 27, which turned violent when marchers gathered in defiance of the order, was legal, the event's organizer said

WORLD

* An Iraqi appeals court upheld the death sentence imposed on Ali Hassan al-Majid, better known as 'Chemical Ali,' said the Iraqi TV station Al-Iraqiya

 * Top U.S. nuclear negotiator Christopher Hill denied reports that Washington removed North Korea from a list of terrorism sponsors following talks in Geneva, apanese news agency Kyodo Tsushin said

* Water containing small amounts of radioactive contamination has leaked from the Ohi nuclear power plant on a Japanese island, Kansai Electrical Power said

* More than 220 militants belonging to the al-Qaeda inspired Fatah al-Islam movement were killed and more than 200 captured by the Lebanese Army in a 15-week operation to root them out of a refugee camp, Lebanon's Defense Minister Elias al-Murr said

* The Chinese government has officially denied U.S. accusations that it hacked the Pentagon's computer systems in June, a Foreign Ministry spokesman said

* Ukraine's parliament, despite resistance from the president and opposition parties, backed a resolution to hold plenary sessions until early parliamentary elections are held on September 30

* A military-themed TV channel, designed to promote Euro-Atlantic integration, has gone on the air in Georgia, a Defense Ministry official said

BUSINESS

* Russia's Ministry of Industry and Energy said a government commission had set the equity capital of the emerging United Shipbuilding Corporation at 1.098 billion rubles ($42.9 million)

* Russia's state-controlled oil giant Rosneft has made the last payment for the debt portfolio of bankrupt Yukos [RTS: YUKO] purchased at a liquidation auction, a Yukos spokesman said

* Russian cell phone operator MTS said  its US GAAP net profit increased 99.7% year-on-year in the first six months of 2007, to $956.5 million

* Inflation reached 0.1% in August and 6.7% in the first seven months of the year, the head of the Federal Statistics Service said

* Basic Element has applied to the competition regulator for approval of a deal to buy a 100% stake in the oil company RussNeft, an industrial holding spokesperson said