Main news of September 26

RUSSIA

* Russian aircraft manufacturer Sukhoi officially presented to the public its first SuperJet-100 regional aircraft

* The foreign and defense ministers of Russia and the United States are set to meet on October 12 in Moscow for missile defense talks, the Russian Foreign Ministry said

* Russia is to close a military space center in the Far East and find a suitable location for a new civilian launch site in the region, First Deputy Prime Minister Sergei Ivanov said

* Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh will visit Russia in November, the Kremlin press service said

* The re-entry module of the Foton-M bio-satellite successfully landed at 11.58 a.m. Moscow time Wednesday (7.58 a.m. GMT)

* About 250,000 birds are to be culled at a poultry farm in south Russia's Krasnodar Territory following an outbreak of bird flu earlier this month, Russia's agriculture watchdog said

* Russian Prime Minister Viktor Zubkov appointed Oleg Markov as head of the country's financial regulating body, the government's press service said

* A boy who survived a freezing two-hour flight to Moscow in the wheel well of a Boeing-737's wing may have to have his hands amputated, Russian newspaper Tvoi Den reported

* The Prosecutor General's Office has ruled that family members of the last Russian Tsar Nicholas II are not subject to rehabilitation, the office said

* The Russian rescue team looking for a Russian tourist still missing in northwest China called an end to its search Wednesday, and is returning to Moscow, an emergencies ministry spokesman said

WORLD

* The death toll following the collapse of a bridge in the city of Can Tho in southern Vietnam  was at least 60, with 100 workers missing, local officials said

* Security forces launched a crackdown on anti-junta demonstrations in Rangoon, Myanmar, regional media reported

* In a speech to the UN General Assembly, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad called for changes to the UN Security Council, which he said has discredited itself and proved ineffective

* Israel's Air Force twice attacked Palestinian rocket launch sites in northern Gaza Wednesday, the Israeli Army press service said

* South Korea is ready to contribute to the success of the upcoming six-party talks on North Korea's nuclear problem, the head of the Seoul delegation said

* Georgia has restored its voting rights in the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the Georgian Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources said

* Hundreds of fish are believed to have been deliberately poisoned at Malaysia's largest aquarium, the country's national news agency Bernama said

* Georgian authorities have devised a secret plan to restore control over the breakaway republic of South Ossetia in 2006, a former Georgian defense minister, Irakly Okruashvili, said

* Israel is about to perform a full-scale military operation in the Gaza Strip to counter Palestinian rocket attacks, Defense Minister Ehud Barak said

* Abkhazia's Foreign Ministry has called on the UN Secretary General to bring to justice those it says are responsible for the deaths of two Abkhazian soldiers on September 21

* The Iranian Foreign Ministry said that U.S. plans to put the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) on a terrorist list are "irresponsible" and "illegal"

BUSINESS

* Estonia's Foreign Ministry handed Nord Stream, the operator of a pipeline project, an official refusal to approve research on the Baltic sea bed in Estonian commercial waters

* Russia's gross domestic product grew by an annualized 6.4% in August, and by 7.7% in the first eight months of the year, the economics ministry said

* Russian Industry and Energy Minister Viktor Khristenko said the country's United Aircraft Corporation could acquire a 5% stake in the European Aeronautic Defence and Space Company from state-controlled bank VTB

* AFK Sistema has paid $11.4 million for a 10% stake in the Indian cell phone service provider Shyam Telelink, the Russian company said