Main news of September 5

RUSSIA

* The election campaign for the lower house of Russia's parliament officially started, less than three months before the December 2 polls to the State Duma

* Russian long-range Tu-95MS Bear-H strategic bombers will begin patrolling the country's remote areas beginning September 6, Col. Alexander Drobyshevsky, an Air Force spokesman, said

* Russia's lower house of parliament ratified a treaty on the state border with Latvia, in a bid to end a long-running territorial dispute with Russia's ex-Soviet neighbor

* About 22,000 birds have been culled at a poultry farm in south Russia's Krasnodar Territory following a bird flu outbreak, local emergency services said

* Russian prosecutors said billionaire Mikhail Gutseriyev, a former RussNeft chief wanted for fraud and tax evasion, is currently in Turkey

* The Foreign Ministry advised Russian citizens not to travel to north Mali or neighboring Niger in West Africa, due to a recent surge of violence in the region

* Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich's investment vehicle Millhouse Capital denied media reports that the tycoon had acquired an Airbus A380, the world's biggest passenger liner

* Russia's safety regulator has given permission for operations to resume at a mine in Siberia, where 108 miners died in an explosion in March, Yuzhkuzbassugol, the mine owner said

* A total of 296 people have been hospitalized with acute intestinal infections in southern Russia following food poisoning, a local hospital said

* A Russian billionaire, Alisher Usmanov, has bought rights to a collection of Soviet-era cartoons from U.S.-based film company and presented them to a new Russian state-run children's channel, the tycoon's spokesman said

WORLD

* Ko San, a former South Korean national amateur boxing bronze medalist, is to become the country's first astronaut, Seoul's news agency Yonhap reported

* The North Korean national security service has announced the arrest of an as yet unknown number of 'foreign spies', Chinese news agency Xinhua reported

* Three men are in custody in Germany on suspicion of preparing terrorist acts on a range of targets, including Frankfurt airport and a U.S. Air Force base in Ramstein, German officials said

* Hamas has banned public prayer in the Gaza Strip, accusing rival faction Fatah of using Friday prayers as a "pretext for anarchy and sedition," Arab news media reported

* The first Russian cargo aircraft containing humanitarian aid has arrived in North Korea recently hit by devastating August-floods, that destroyed a total of 47,000 houses

* Indonesia's armed forces commander said the country, which is expected to close a series of major arms deals with Russia this week, wants access to Russian technology for joint weapons production

* Israel will not launch a military incursion into the Gaza Strip in response to rocket fire from the territory, but is seriously considering a cutoff of vital electricity, water and fuel supplies if the attacks persist, local radio reported

* India has developed a submarine launched supersonic missile, a modification of the BrahMos Russian-Indian cruise missile, the Press Trust of India quoted Defense Minister A. K. Antony as saying

BUSINESS

* Ian Macfarlane, Australia's minister of industry, tourism and resources, said Russian investment in his country had reached $5-6 billion, and was becoming increasingly important strategically for its economy

* Aeroflot shareholders approved a deal to buy 22 Airbus-350 and 22 Boeing-787 airliners, the general director of the Russian air carrier said

* Three Russian companies - Gazprom, Lukoil and Novatek - will participate in the fourth round of bidding for the right to operate oil fields in Libya, the National Oil Corporation (NOC) said

* Rosneft will start drilling exploratory wells at a giant western Kamchatka shelf in Far Eastern Russia as early as next year, Sergei Bogdanchikov, the head of Russia's largest crude producer, said

* The French company Alstom has been awarded a contract to supply four high-speed trains for the Helsinki (Finland) to St. Petersburg (Russia) rail link, Russian Railways said

* The Magnitogorsk Iron & Steel Works plans to invest over $1 billion in the construction of a U.S. steel producer with a capacity of 1.5 million metric tons of rolled iron, the MMK CEO said

* Germany's Siemens intends to buy a stake in heavy machinery manufacturer Power Machines [RTS: SILM] from Russian financial holding Interros, the company press service said

* Iran and Belarus have signed a contract allowing Belarusneft to produce oil at the Jofeir deposit in Iran, Belarusneft's press service said