Main news of December 11

RUSSIA

* A presidential candidate and a Russian first deputy prime minister, Dmitry Medvedev, proposed that President Vladimir Putin be appointed prime minister after the March 2008 presidential election

* Russian planes on board the Admiral Kuznetsov aircraft carrier have conducted 11 practice flights in the North Sea, a Navy spokesman said

* Russian President Vladimir Putin said the country's state corporations will receive only limited support from the government, and will not be allowed to become monopolies

* Special forces in Russia's Penza Region have worked out a plan to forcibly remove a group of doomsday cult members from a cave where they have been holed up for over a month, the Tvoi Den newspaper said

* More than 70 planned terrorist attacks, some of which would have involved suicide bombers, were prevented in the North Caucasus this year, Russia's security chief Nikolai Patrushev said

* Russia's Reshetnev Applied Mechanics Production Association (NPO-PM) and France's Thales Alenia Space are developing a new multifunctional satellite platform, Express-4000, the Russian company said

* A Russian nuclear expert said Russia and the United States have a good chance of signing a new strategic arms reduction treaty to replace START-I, which expires in December 2009

* Maria Solovyenko, a Russian journalist who once 'confused' President Vladimir Putin at a Kremlin news conference, said she intended to stand for the presidency

* Some 35,000 birds have died from bird flu since late November at a poultry farm in southern Russia's Rostov Region, a spokeswoman for the local emergencies ministry said

* The pulp mill, accused by Russia's environmental watchdog of polluting Lake Baikal, is using blackmail in saying its closure will leave 16,000 without heating, the regulator's deputy head said

* A group of North Korean workers were attacked by local residents in Volokolamsk, in the Moscow Region, a police spokesman said

WORLD

* Pakistan has successfully conducted a test launch of a cruise missile capable of carrying nuclear warheads, national television said

* One of the two bombs which went off in the capital of Algeria, Algiers, killing between 30 and 60 people, targeted the office of a UN refugee agency, the country's interior minister said

* A regular train service between North and South Korea was launched after a hiatus of more than half a century, in a step hailed by Seoul as a major breakthrough in rebuilding economic ties

* Israeli troops have killed at least eight Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip as Israeli ground forces crossed into the Palestinian enclave, local radio reported

* The South Korean government is to allocate around $7.5 million to the disaster-hit zone following the country's worst-ever oil spill, the Yonhap news agency said

* Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad reiterated his offer to hold a live television debate with his U.S. counterpart to discuss their contrasting approaches to world issues

* With arms sales of over $4 billion in 2007, Israel has moved up to fourth place on the list of the world's largest weapons exporters, overtaking the U.K., the Israeli defense ministry said

* An agreement replacing the Kyoto Protocol in 2012 will probably be signed in late 2009 in Copenhagen, a participant at a UN conference on climate change in Indonesia said

* Turkey's military command has accused certain EU countries, in particular France and the U.K., of acting in a way that supports Kurdish militants, NTV reported

* The Middle East quartet of mediators could hold its next foreign ministers' meeting in Paris on December 18, a Russian deputy foreign minister said

* A woman died of bird flu in Jakarta, Indonesia, bringing the death toll in the Southeast Asian country to almost 100, the Xinhua news agency said

* Ukraine's parliament failed by one vote to approve the appointment of pro-Western 'orange' coalition leader Yulia Tymoshenko as prime minister

* The penguin population in Antarctica has sharply decreased due to global warming, a World Wildlife Fund (WWF) report said

* Moscow is concerned over Israeli plans to continue building new settlements on occupied Palestinian territories, the Foreign Ministry said

* Venezuela's president threatened to sever trade relations with Colombia over disagreements with the country's president, Venezuelan daily Nacional said

* Riot police in Sao Paolo used tear gas and stun grenades to disperse residents of shantytowns, known as favelas, who were protesting against the demolition of their homes

* Russia is insisting that dialogue continue between Belgrade and Pristina on the status of the Kosovo province, a Russian deputy foreign minister said

* Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said he did not rule out the possibility of trilateral negotiations between Russia, Germany and Poland on the construction of the Nord Stream gas pipeline

BUSINESS

* The Nord Stream pipeline being built under the Baltic Sea to pump Russian natural gas to Germany will not be a rival to existing gas pipelines, former German chancellor Gerhard Schroeder said

* Russia hopes its companies will be able to make a major contribution to efforts to rebuild infrastructure in war-torn Iraq, a deputy foreign minister said