Main news of November 18

RUSSIA

* Twenty-two Russian sailors have been rescued from a freight ship that sank in the Sea of Japan, a spokeswoman for Russia's regional emergencies department said

* Russia has temporarily banned river-class vessels from sailing into seas, following the incidents with Russian ships in the Kerch Strait between the Black and Azov Seas, the Transport Ministry said

* A Russian Proton-M carrier rocket, launched from the Baikonur space center in Kazakhstan, put a European telecommunications satellite into orbit, Russia's space agency (Roskosmos) said

* The arrest of Deputy Finance Minister Sergei Storchak is linked to the settlement of the former Soviet debt to commercial firm Sodexim, a source in the Russian Finance Ministry said

* Nicaraguan Foreign Minister Samuel Santos Lopez arrived in Moscow on an official visit to discuss closer trade ties and the possibility of boosting the exports of defense and machinery products by Russia

WORLD

* The Democratic Party of former guerilla commander Hashim Thaci is well ahead at the parliamentary elections in Serbia's predominantly Albanian province of Kosovo, regional observers said

* The death toll in eastern Ukraine, following methane explosion at a coalmine in the Donetsk Region, has risen to 33, and 77 miners are missing, Ukrainian Vice-Premier Andriy Klyuyev said

* The death toll from a devastating cyclone in Bangladesh has climbed to 1,860, China's Xinhua news agency reported

BUSINESS

* Foreign direct investment in Russia will be at the level of $45-50 billion per year in the next three years, Russian Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin told a meeting of G20 central bankers and finance ministers in South Africa's Cape Town