Main news of November 2

RUSSIA

* Russia's Nuclear Power Agency is against the idea of setting up an international uranium enrichment center in one of the Arab states, Sergei Kiriyenko, the head of Rosatom, said

* Russia extended until November 15 permission for Germany's Lufthansa to use its airspace, the Transport Ministry said

* Russia's General Staff wants Georgia's leadership to prevent provocations in the conflict zone with Georgia's breakaway Abkhazia, a senior army official said

* Alexander Pichushkin, one of the most prolific serial killers in Russia's history, who was found guilty of 48 murders, has filed an appeal against his life sentence, his lawyer said

* Russia's Foreign Ministry said recent comments by a senior U.S. government official about the "curtailed" monitoring procedure for upcoming parliamentary elections were "inappropriate" and "ill-advised"

* A Russian Proton-M carrier rocket has been scheduled to put a European telecommunications satellite into orbit on November 18, Russia's space agency (Roskosmos) said

* A court in Kondopoga, in Russia's northwestern republic of Karelia, gave 12 people, convicted of taking part in a September 2006 mass ethnic brawl, three-year suspended sentences

* Russia will defend its interests in Ukraine, where an oil refinery was raided on October 19 as part of an ongoing row between Russian and Ukrainian shareholders, First Deputy Prime Minister Sergei Ivanov said

* Sergei Yastrzhembsky, Russia's presidential adviser on EU relations, said the 27-nation bloc has no need to fear a mass influx of migrants from Russia if the visa regime is scrapped

* Legendary Russian folk dance choreographer Igor Moiseyev died of heart failure during the night at the age of 101, a spokesman for the Russian Culture Agency said

* Over 1,500 military personnel started a series of anti-terrorism exercises in the North Caucasus military district, Russia's Defense Ministry said

WORLD

* Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas met with Hamas leaders for the first time since the Islamist group ousted his forces and took control of the Gaza Strip in a bloody conflict in June

* Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Ankara might not go ahead with a cross-border operation against Kurdish rebels in northern Iraq after all

* Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert is seeking to reach an agreement on key issues in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in a year, while President Bush is still in office, a top Israeli paper said

* Deputy foreign ministers of six world powers agreed to start working on a new UN Security Council resolution on Iran's controversial nuclear problem at a meeting in London, a Foreign Office spokesman said

* Georgia's speaker said after meeting with opposition groups against the backdrop of a massive rally in the capital that authorities would not change the date of next year's elections set for the fall

* Tropical storm Noel, which has killed at least 115, is now ranked a category one hurricane and continues to batter the Caribbean with torrential rain and strong winds, local media said

* Mexican authorities seized 23.6 metric tons of cocaine on a ship that sailed in from Columbia, in the largest drug haul in the country's history, local media said

BUSINESS

* Ukraine will conclude talks with Russia on prices for 2008 natural gas supplies before November 20, First Deputy Prime Minister Nikolai Azarov said

* Russia has paid off the remaining $563 million Soviet-era debt to the United Arab Emirates, the Finance Ministry press service said

* LUKoil, Russia's largest independent crude producer, said its crude output in the first nine months of the current year rose 2.2% year-on-year, to 72.7 million tons