Main news of September 6

RUSSIA

* NATO jets escort almost all Russian strategic bombers engaged in long-range patrols, Alexander Drobyshevsky, an aide to the commander of Russia's Air Force said

* High-ranking diplomats from Russia and the United States will meet in Paris Monday to discuss U.S. plans to deploy missile defense elements in Central Europe, a Russian Foreign Ministry source said

* A Russian nuclear agency spokesman said there was no strict deadline for talks on commissioning the Bushehr nuclear power plant Russia is building in Iran, and the contractor denied the project schedule had been finally coordinated

* A Russian Proton-M booster rocket carrying a Japanese communications satellite exploded shortly after lift-off early Thursday, a space agency spokesman said

* Russia's Supreme Court has canceled the ruling of a lower court on the illegality of conducting a new criminal investigation against ex-oil company Yukos head Mikhail Khodorkovsky in Chita, a lawyer said

* Russia is to put forward a draft resolution to the United Nations banning the deployment of weapons in outer space, a Russian UN mission official statement said

* Russia is set to deregulate rail freight tariffs and passenger fares by 50% and 70%, respectively, in 2030, and plans to raise $540 billion in funding needed through private investors

* Police in Daghestan have discovered an underground explosives workshop in a residential home in the Khasavyurt district, in northern Daghestan, a source in the republic's Interior Ministry said

WORLD

* Italian opera legend Luciano Pavarotti died early Thursday morning at his villa in Modena at the age of 71, after battling cancer for over a year

* An agreement can be reached between Russia and the United States on an ongoing missile defense dispute and the Treaty on Conventional Armed Forces in Europe (CFE), Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said

* Tehran distrusts a U.S. initiative to create an international nuclear fuel bank, Ali Larijani, the secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council, said

* Representatives from Serbia and Kosovo will hold direct talks without mediators in New York on September 28 within the framework of the UN General Assembly session, a Russian diplomat said

* South Korea's Yonhap news agency quoted a government source as saying that another round of the six-nation talks aimed at resolving North Korea's nuclear issue could be held in two weeks

* Syria condemned the violation of its airspace and the launching of rockets by Israeli aircraft, the SANA news agency said

* At least three Palestinian militants have been killed and six wounded by the Israeli Army in clashes in the Gaza Strip, local television reported

* A Middle East peace conference proposed by U.S. President George Bush will require serious preparation and evenhandedness if it is to be effective in reconciling the region's many clashing interests, Amr Moussa, the head of the Arab League, said

* Estonia's Defense Minister Jaak Aaviksoo admitted he had no evidence that cyber attacks, which hit Estonian government computers in April-May, were carried out by official Russian government agencies

* Experts of Rosselkhoznadzor, Russia's veterinary watchdog, have started inspecting the Brazilian system of veterinary control, Brazil's Agricultural Ministry said

BUSINESS

* Russia is unlikely to complete all necessary formalities to join the World Trade Organization (WTO) by the end of this year as was planned previously, Economic Development and Trade Minister German Gref said

* Russia signed an agreement with Indonesia to provide a $1 billion credit line to the southeast Asian country for Russian weapons purchases

* Russian aluminum giant United Company RusAl and Indonesian mining company Antam signed a memorandum to set up a joint venture to build a bauxite and alumina processing complex in Indonesia by 2011, a RusAl spokesman said

* Russia's net capital inflow totaled $59 billion in the first eight months of this year, Alexei Ulyukayev, the first deputy chairman of the Central Bank, said

* Russian electricity monopoly Unified Energy System (UES) will sell its central office building, the Neftyanoi Dom business center, through a tender for at least $165 million, a company consultant said

* A Russian technical watchdog spokesman said the leg of a pipeline that used to pump oil to Lithuania could be put back into operation in the spring of 2009

* Representatives of the Arab business world are ready to invest up to $20 billion in the Tatarstan economy, the Russian republic's Trade and Industry Minister, Alexander Kogogin, said

* The government of Kazakhstan doubts Italy's Eni can comply with the terms of an agreement to develop the country's largest oil field on the Caspian shelf, the Kazakh Prime Minister Karim Masimov said