Main news of November 12

RUSSIA

* Emergency services have found three bodies and continue the search for five sailors missing from one of four ships which sank during a powerful storm between the Sea of Azov and the Black Sea at the weekend

* Negotiations between Russia's president and India's premier in Moscow yielded agreements on building a multipurpose transport plane, on India's Soviet-era debt, and on anti-drugs measures

* Russia's Federal Space Agency (Roskosmos) and the Indian Department of Space have signed a joint lunar research and exploration agreement, the Russian agency said

* Russia's emergencies ministry announced on Monday the launch of a major operation in a Black Sea strait to contain an oil spill after an oil tanker sank in a storm

* Russia's Prime Minister Viktor Zubkov highlighted banking and engineering as factors boosting bilateral trade with India, at a meeting with his counterpart, Manmohan Singh

* Greenpeace warned that Sunday's fuel oil spill between the Black and Azov Seas could destroy rare fauna, but a Russian lawmaker said the damage was no worse than everyday industrial pollution

* A Russian national convicted of killing an air traffic controller was released from a Swiss prison and will fly home today, the Russian embassy said

* At least eight militants were killed during a police assault on a militant hideout in Daghestan, a republic in Russia's troubled North Caucasus, a local police source said

WORLD

* Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said the resumption of talks with Washington on security issues in Iraq did not reflect a change in Tehran's attitude toward the U.S

* Hamas gunmen have opened fire on a massive opposition Fatah rally in central Gaza, killing at least six protesters and wounding around another 100, local media report

* Georgia's opposition said lawmaker and wine businessman Levan Gachechiladze would run in the January 5 early presidential elections as its single candidate

* Israeli President Shimon Peres said he hoped a peace agreement with the Palestinians could eventually be achieved

* Israel will release up to 400 Palestinians prisoners ahead of an upcoming U.S.-sponsored Mideast peace conference in Annapolis, scheduled for the end of the month, Israel's Haaretz daily said

* A new outbreak of bird flu was discovered at a turkey farm in the east of England, Britain's farm ministry said

* South and North Korean defense ministers are to hold talks in Pyongyang on November 27-29 over reducing tensions on the border between the two countries, South Korea's news agency Yonhap said

* China successfully launched the third Yaogan-series earth remote-sensing satellite, China's Xinhua news agency reported

* Three Russian diplomats expelled from Georgia for allegedly supporting local opposition rallies, have left the country, Georgian television said

* The commander of the peacekeeping forces in the conflict zone between Georgia and its self-proclaimed republic of Abkhazia denied Georgia's claims that Russia had brought in military hardware and troops

* Two Russian servicemen were found guilty of the murder of a colleague at the Plesetsk space center, and sentenced to 11 and 14 years imprisonment respectively, military prosecutors said

BUSINESS

* Russia's Gazprom forecasts that the average European natural gas price will be $300 per 1,000 cubic meters in 2008, a company executive said

* The European Union should take the position of energy suppliers into account while amending its gas and electricity policy, Russia's Industry and Energy Minister Viktor Khristenko said

* The Moscow Arbitration Court ended the liquidation process of oil company Yukos on a request from the bankruptcy receiver

* Russia and Bulgaria could sign an agreement on building a gas pipeline to run under the Black Sea directly from Russia to the European Union in January, a Russian official said

* Russian state-controlled crude producer Rosneft intends to triple oil supplies to Asian countries by 2020 in a bid to diversify crude exports, the company's chief executive said

* Finland supports the Nord Stream pipeline being built under the Baltic Sea to pump Russian natural gas to Germany, but will study its environmental consequences, the Finnish ambassador to Moscow said