Main news of October 24

RUSSIA

* A jury found Alexander Pichushkin, dubbed Russia's 'chessboard killer', guilty of 48 murders and three attempted murders

* The Russia-EU partnership and cooperation agreement expiring in December 2007 will be extended for one more year, a Russian presidential envoy said

* Issues of bilateral cooperation as well as key international issues will be high on the agenda during the Russian president's visit to Portugal October 25-26, a Kremlin source said

* Russia will allocate some $210 million under UN assistance programs to the world's poorest countries in 2007, five times as much as in 2004, the country's deputy finance minister said

* A total of 42 children and three staff have been infected with salmonella since Monday at a kindergarten in the Amur Region in Russia's Far East, the consumer rights regulator announced

* The Moscow City Court remanded in custody Shamil Burayev, a suspect in the murder of investigative journalist Anna Politkovskaya

* At least three people were injured in a household gas explosion in a five-story building in Samara, a city in Russia's Volga area, emergency services said

WORLD

* China successfully launched its Chang'e 1 orbiter, the country's first lunar probe

* Pakistan's former prime minister Benazir Bhutto has received terrorist threats from al-Qaeda following last week's attack on her motorcade in Pakistan's largest city, local media reported

* Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad dismissed on Wednesday the UN Security Council's document on Iran's nuclear program as a worthless pile of paper

* The Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) is ready for dialogue with Turkey, but its fighters do not intend to lay down their arms, a PKK spokesman said

* Around 2,500 Pakistani troops have been sent to Swat, a northeast mountain valley, following a roadside bomb explosion injuring four soldiers late on Tuesday, an army spokesman said

* The deployment of U.S. missile defenses in Europe will not ease global security concerns but will undermine the global strategic balance, the Chinese foreign minister said

* Jaroslaw Kaczynski, Poland's outgoing prime minister, said Russia still poses a threat to Poland, as it fails to fully acknowledge the country's sovereignty and independent foreign policy

* At least 500,000 people in the south of California were forced to flee their homes as wildfires continue to ravage the U.S. state for a fourth day, local media said

* Kazakhstan has lifted its ban on launches of Russian Proton-type rockets from its space center in Baikonur, a government spokesperson said

* President of Kyrgyzstan Kurmanbek Bakiyev dismissed the government following the adoption of the country's new Constitution

* A Russian nuclear official said his country could launch cooperation with India in building fast neutron nuclear reactors for power plants if sanctions against India are removed

* The U.S. Secretary of State told a Congress panel that the United States would protect Iraqis from Iran's efforts to destabilize the country

* Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's press office denied media reports quoting the premier as saying Russia had pledged not to supply nuclear fuel to Iran

BUSINESS

* Foreign direct investment in Russia exceeded $40 billion in the first nine months of 2007, presidential aide Igor Shuvalov said

* Stroytransgaz, one of Russia's largest engineering and construction companies, plans to start building a natural gas processing plant in Syria next week, the project's manager said

* Russia's annual gross domestic product (GDP) is expected to top $1.2 trillion against $985 billion last year, Economics Development and Trade Minister Elvira Nabiullina said

* Nissan Motor, one of Japan's largest auto manufacturers, will start producing cars at a plant under construction near St. Petersburg in April-May 2009, the company's Russia director said

* Synergy holding company, a leading producer of distilled spirits in Russia, said it intends to hold an initial public offering (IPO) by the end of the year to raise about $200 million

* Russian railway monopoly RZD could raise around 300 billion rubles (about $12 billion) from a public offering (IPO) of 20% of its stock, VTB Bank CEO Andrei Kostin said

* Russian food producers and major retail chains have signed an agreement to freeze prices on certain food items for about three months, the Agriculture Ministry announced