Main news of November 1

RUSSIA

* Investigators have identified a suspect in Wednesday's bus bombing in Togliatti, in Russia's Volga area, chief investigator Alexander Bastrykin said

* A Cosmos 3M carrier rocket has successfully put a German SAR-Lupe communications satellite into orbit, a spokesman for Russia's Space Forces said

* Russian security service defector Alexander Litvinenko could have died of radioactive poisoning through his own negligence, Dmitry Kovtun, a Russian witness in the case, said

* Russia's Foreign Ministry spokesman accused Georgia of engaging in a propaganda campaign against Russian peacekeepers in a conflict zone with Georgia's breakaway region of Abkhazia

* Russian food safety experts could inspect Polish companies exporting meat products to Russia as early as November, a spokesman for Russia's food safety watchdog said

* Russian state-run nuclear fuel producer TVEL will supply 7 kilograms of low enriched uranium to a research reactor in Ukraine in 2008, the company said

* Russian opposition leader Garry Kasparov announced that fresh opposition rallies are to take place in Moscow and St. Petersburg on November 24 and 25

WORLD

* Turkey's Prime Minister Recep Tayiip Erdogan denied media reports that the country had closed its airspace to planes flying to and from north Iraq

* South Korea hopes talks can be started to officially end the 1950-53 Korean War when Pyongyang's denuclearization has reached a 'proper stage,' Foreign Minister Song Min-soon said

* A suicide bomber crashed a motorbike into a Pakistani Air Force bus, killing at least eight servicemen and injuring 40, local media said

* Tropical storm Noel killed at least 80 people as torrential rain and high winds continue to batter the Dominican Republic and Haiti causing flooding and mudslides, the local media said

* Former Georgian defense minister Irakly Okruashvili has left Georgia, the country's ex-minister for conflict resolution saidFormer Georgian defense minister Irakly Okruashvili has left Georgia, the country's ex-minister for conflict resolution said

* A senior Czech diplomat said the Gabala radar Russia leases from Azerbaijan cannot be considered an alternative to U.S. missile shield plans in Central Europe

BUSINESS

* Russia will raise oil export duties to a record $275.4 per ton from December 1, in keeping with world market trends, a senior Finance Ministry official said

* Russia has dropped the idea of building a second leg of a pipeline delivering natural gas via Belarus to Europe, Industry and Energy Minister Viktor Khristenko said

* Nord Stream AG, the operator of a project to build a gas pipeline from Russia to Germany via the Baltic Sea, said it would consider Sweden's proposals for altering the pipeline's route

* Russia's Stabilization Fund grew 3.7% to 3.6 trillion rubles ($148 billion) from October 1 to November 1, the Finance Ministry said

* Yukos's bankruptcy receiver will appeal against the ruling of an Amsterdam court against the sale of Netherlands-based Yukos Finance B.V., a spokesman said