Main news of October 17

RUSSIA

* Army Gen. Yury Baluyevsky, chief of the Armed Forces General Staff said:

- The U.S. has made no new proposals to try and resolve a dispute with Russia over Washington's plans to place elements of its missile shield in Europe

- Relinquishing the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty could spur the use of weapons of mass destruction

- Russia's military has evidence that Georgia is prepared to use force to resolve conflicts with its breakaway provinces of Abkhazia and South Ossetia

* Russia beat England 2-1 in the Euro 2008 qualifying match at the Luzhniki stadium in Moscow

* Certain progress has been achieved in talks on the future of Serbia's breakaway province of Kosovo, Russia's envoy to the European Union said

* Three people are confirmed dead following a riot that broke out in a juvenile correctional facility in the Urals, and over a dozen are wounded, the local penitentiary service said

* Moscow's Basmanny Court has extended custody for Dzhabrail Makhmudov, suspected of murdering investigative journalist Anna Politkovskaya, until January 7

* Russia's space agency will soon announce a tender to develop a new carrier rocket, to ensure successful implementation of its manned-flight program, said Anatoly Perminov, the head of the Federal Space Agency

* Russia's Federation Council approved a draft law to introduce a two-tier higher education system in Russia

* A court in Sakhalin has sentenced a 50-year-old man to 24 years behind bars for the rape of a six-year-old girl, a spokesman for the local prosecutor said

* Yury Yarov, director of the Severnoye ship design bureau, has been nominated for president of the United Shipbuilding Corporation (USC), the Industry and Energy Ministry said

WORLD

* The Japanese government has endorsed a draft law extending Japan's naval support mission for coalition forces in Afghanistan, Kyodo news agency said

* Tehran will not sign any agreements on the status of the Caspian Sea until its national interests in the region are fully safeguarded, Iran's deputy foreign minister said

* United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon welcomed the exchange of hostages between Israel and Lebanon, the first since the end of the 34-day military conflict in Lebanon in the summer of 2006

* At least one Palestinian gunman has been killed and seven injured in clashes with Israeli troops conducting an operation in the south of Gaza, local radio said

* Cecilia and Nicolas Sarkozy have launched divorce proceedings, France's LCI television said

* Former Pakistani premier Benazir Bhutto promised a day before her return to Pakistan to put an end to extremism and to develop democracy in the country if she returns to power

* Iran's top nuclear negotiator Ali Larijani proposed that the West come to terms with the Islamic Republic's possession of nuclear technology

* Russia's admission to the WTO should lay the groundwork for closer economic integration with the European Union, the EU trade chief said

* A leader of Ukraine's new "orange" coalition, Vyacheslav Kyrylenko, said its members would unanimously back Yulia Tymoshenko as premier and himself as parliamentary speaker

* Israel's prime minister arrives in Moscow Thursday to discuss Iran's nuclear ambitions and a peace conference on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in the U.S. later this year, the premier's spokesperson said

* Turkey's parliament sanctioned military cross-border operations against Kurdish separatists in northern Iraq following a government request earlier this week

BUSINESS

* Russia's state-controlled crude producer Rosneft said it has received a total of $9.8 billion from bankrupt oil firm Yukos

* The construction of a second leg of a pipeline delivering natural gas via Belarus to Europe has been delayed due to ownership disputes, Russia's ambassador to Belarus said

* The new International Monetary Fund (IMF) World Economic Outlook report said Russia's GDP will grow by 7% in 2007

* Russia's veterinary watchdog (Rosselkhoznadzor) said it has banned 28 U.S. plants from importing meat products to Russia