Main news of September 12

RUSSIA

* President Vladimir Putin accepted Prime Minister Mikhail Fradkov's request to dismiss the government and form a new Cabinet 

* President Vladimir Putin nominated the head of the country's financial watchdog, Viktor Zubkov, for prime minister

* Russia and the United States have fundamental differences on a new agreement that is to replace the Strategic Arms Reduction (START) Treaty, a senior Foreign Ministry official said

* Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari will arrive in Moscow next Wednesday on a three-day official visit, the Iraqi Embassy in Moscow said

* The Moscow Military District Court sentenced Igor Arsentyev, a lieutenant colonel in the reserves, to nine years in prison after finding him guilty of high treason

* Belgrade and Pristina should be given more time if they fail to reach an agreement on Kosovo by December 10, when the UN is due to deliver a report on the province, a Russian Foreign Ministry official said

* The pro-Kremlin United Russia party has introduced a draft law on the 2014 Winter Olympics preparations in Sochi, a resort city on Russia's Black Sea, the economic policy department said

* Russian Federal Security Service officer Pavel Ryaguzov is suspected of passing details of investigative journalist Anna Politkovskaya's address to her killers, a source close to the investigation said

WORLD

* Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe announced his resignation following an upper house election defeat and controversy over his country's support for Afghanistan operations

* Former Philippine president Joseph Estrada was found guilty of mass corruption by an anti-graft court, and faces a life sentence

* A regular round of six-party talks on the North Korean nuclear problem could be held around September 19, Japan's Kyodo news agency cited sources close to talks 

* Iran has rejected UN calls to impose a moratorium on uranium enrichment and demanded new solutions to its controversial nuclear program, the country's top nuclear negotiator said

* Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki and the head of Russia's nuclear power agency Rosatom, Sergei Kiriyenko, are expected to meet in October in Tehran

* Azerbaijani-Russian-U.S. consultations on the joint use of the Gabala radar station that Russia leases from Azerbaijan will be held within a week, a spokesman for Azerbaijan's Foreign Ministry said

* United States military officials and weapons experts are advising the leadership to drop diplomacy with Iran over its nuclear program, and prepare for military action, FOX News reported

* Pakistani extremists have tried to destroy a seventh century rock carving of Buddha in the Swat valley region, in northwestern Pakistan, a spokesman for the local archaeology department said

* The Israeli Army has imposed a near-total blockade of the Palestinian territories during Rosh Hashana, the Jewish New Year, the military's press service said

* British company Oxford Ancestors, a service compiling family trees with the help of DNA analysis, intends to prove that the famous Russian poet Mikhail Lermontov was of Scottish origin 

* The Pakistani Army has killed around 40 Islamist fighters during an operation in the northwest of the country, a spokesman for the army, General-Major Waheed Arshad, said

* The amount of heroin produced in Afghanistan in 2007 is set to exceed 800 metric tons, a record for the country, the head of the Russian Federal Drug Control Service Viktor Cherkesov said

* An article published in a British newspaper has described Russia's testing of a new thermobaric bomb as Moscow's response to U.S. plans to deploy a missile defense system in Central Europe

* Rescuers searching for six Russian tourists, missing in China's Xinjiang region since August 22, have found two catamarans used by the group, an Emergency Situations Ministry spokesman said

 

BUSINESS

* Atomstroyexport has put the second power unit of the Tianwan nuclear power plant (NPP) in China into commercial operation, the head of the nuclear equipment export monopoly said

* Consultations with the Italian oil and gas giant Eni over the development of Kazakhstan's largest oil field on the Caspian shelf will continue through October 22, Kazakh Prime Minister Karim Masimov said

* Russia's anti-monopoly regulator said it has prohibited Germany's Siemens from buying a controlling stake in heavy machinery manufacturer Power Machines

* Russian mobile operator VimpelCom, Russia's second-largest mobile service provider, said it has signed a framework agreement to set up GTel Mobile communications, a joint venture in Vietnam

* Russian energy giant Gazprom and Russian-British joint venture TNK-BP have extended the timeframe for finalizing the deal on Siberia's Kovykta gas field until December 1, Gazprom said

* LUKoil, Russia's largest independent crude producer, said its net profit, calculated to US GAAP, declined 4.8% year-on-year, to $3.8 billion in the first half of 2007

* Russia's state statistics agency said the country's GDP grew 7.9% in the first half of 2007

* Nissan Motor Co., one of Japan's largest car manufacturers, has enjoyed high sales in Russia, selling some 75,500 cars there in 2006, the head of the company's Russian dealership said

* Gazprom [RTS: GAZP] will pick another partner in a project to develop the Shtokman natural gas field in the Arctic by the end of this month, the CEO of a Gazprom subsidiary said

* Russia has been invited to a summit of the South American common market MERCOSUR in December, the acting Russian foreign minister said