Main news of September 25

RUSSIA

* Russian President Vladimir Putin has signed a decree revising the structure of federal executive bodies, a presidential spokesman said

* Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said:

- Moscow demands that Georgia immediately release two Russian peacekeepers

- The Gabala radar Russia leases from Azerbaijan cannot be used by the U.S. in addition to planned U.S. missile defense elements in Central Europe

* Russian Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin said he would oversee the activities of both the Finance Ministry and the Economic Development and Trade Ministry in his new post

* Russian aircraft manufacturer Sukhoi will start making a profit on its initial investment once 300 SuperJet 100s regional aircraft have been sold, the company's CEO said

* Russia could develop a bird flu vaccine targeted at wild birds within two years, creating a revolution in the flight against the disease, the chief vet at Russia's food safety watchdog said

* The former world chess champion, Garry Kasparov, won the second round of the Other Russia primaries in his bid to gain the opposition coalition's nomination for the 2008 presidential elections

* The prolongation of the Kyoto Protocol on the reduction of carbon emissions, which expires in 2012, will be ineffective, the head of the Russian hydrometeorology service said

WORLD

* The U.S. Congress approved a bill toughening sanctions against Iran and banning the White House from any new nuclear cooperation with Russia and other countries

* Yasuo Fukuda was chosen as Japan's new prime minister by parliament's lower house on Tuesday, reported Kyodo news

* The Lebanese parliament failed to elect the country's new president following a Hezbollah-led boycott of the vote

* The division of the Palestinian territories caused by the Hamas-Fatah conflict must not hold back the peace process in the Middle East as a whole, Egypt's foreign minister

* A new outbreak of foot and mouth disease, the seventh in south-east England since August 3, was confirmed by Britain's Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

* Israel is ready to unilaterally announce a visa-free regime for Russian tourists if no bilateral agreement is reached by the end of the year, Tourism Minister Yitzhak Aharonovich said

* Eight fruit-filled baskets and 20 sealed jars previously un-noticed by Egyptologists have been found concealed in a chamber adjoining the tomb of King Tutankhamun, a top Egyptian archaeologist said

BUSINESS

* The International Monetary Fund will start assessing the Russian financial sector next week, IMF Managing Director Rodrigo de Rato said

* Russian aluminum giant United Company RusAL is planning to invest around $5 billion in alumina production until 2013, the division director said

* German and Russian manufacturers will supply the pipes for the first stage of the trans-Baltic project to bring Russian natural gas to Europe, the project operator said

* Alrosa is set to hold an initial public offering within one-and-a-half years, the Russian diamond monopoly head said