Main news of October 8

RUSSIA

* An investigation into the murder of U.S.-born journalist Paul Klebnikov in Moscow has helped solve the murder of journalist Anna Politkovskaya, the chief investigator said

* Russian President Vladimir Putin accepted Prime Minister Viktor Zubkov's proposal to appoint Sberbank CEO Andrei Kazmin as head of the country's postal service

* Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov will arrive in Japan on an official visit next week, a deputy foreign minister said

* Four members of the Russian security forces were killed and 10 wounded in Chechnya when their motorcade came under automatic weapon fire from militants, a local police source said

* A total of 624 residents of six towns in the Stavropol Territory, southern Russia, have fallen ill in a case of mass food poisoning that has hit nurseries, local emergencies officials said

* A senior Russian military official said over 6,600 servicemen had been killed in two military campaigns in the Chechen Republic in the North Caucasus

* Russia's Economic Development and Trade Minister Elvira Nabiullina said the country's inflation would exceed the target level of 8% in 2007

WORLD

* Four soldiers were killed when an army helicopter escorting President Pervez Musharraf crashed over the Pakistan-controlled portion of Kashmir, local television said

* Israeli aircraft delivered an air strike on a group of Palestinian militants in northern Gaza, injuring several people, the army press service and local radio said

* A twenty-year old U.S. police officer went on the rampage, killing six people, including his former girlfriend, before being shot dead by a police sniper, media reported

* Gazprom reached an agreement with Ukraine's Fuel and Energy Ministry on a scheme to settle the country's natural gas debt, the Russian gas giant said in a news release

* Kazakhstan is seeking 1.5 billion rubles ($60 million) from Russia in compensation for a rocket crash on it territory, a Kazakh regional governor said

* A Tbilisi court fixed a sum of 10 million lari (over $6 million) for the release on bail of Georgian ex-defense minister Irakly Okruashvili, a deputy prosecutor general said

* A Russian Defense Ministry official warned that Czech authorities could relocate a statue in Prague of Soviet military commander Ivan Konev, who played a central role in liberating Eastern Europe from the Nazis

* Russia is against imposing timeframes on negotiations on the status of Serbia's predominantly Albanian region of Kosovo, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said

* A Russian national charged by Lebanese authorities with terrorism protested his innocence, a Russian diplomat in the country said

* Millhouse Capital, a company managing Russian tycoon Roman Abramovich's assets, refused to comment on media reports that fugitive oligarch Boris Berezovsky handed him a writ in a London shop

BUSINESS

* U.S. auto giant General Motors and Korean-Uzbek car manufacturer UzDaewooAvto have set up a joint venture to produce up to 250,000 Chevrolet cars a year in Uzbekistan, company officials said

* Kazakhstan will not review its contract with Italy's energy giant Eni, the operator of the country's largest oil field on the Caspian shelf, if investors honor their commitments, Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev said

* Russian energy giant Gazprom said its net profit calculated to International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) went up 14% to 210 billion rubles ($8.4 billion) in the first quarter of 2007

* Inter RAO UES, the Russian electricity monopoly's import and export operator, intends to hold an initial public offering (IPO) in 2009, the company's general director said

* State-controlled Vneshtorgbank (VTB) received about $2 billion in investment on world markets in August-September through private deals, Andrei Kostin, the bank's CEO, said