Main news of December 14

RUSSIA

* Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said:

- Russia will sign an agreement with Egypt in the future to develop its nuclear power sector

- He accuses Britain of violating international law in the latest row over the British Council in Russia

- The next meeting of the Middle East quartet of mediators could go ahead December 17 in Paris on the sidelines of a high-level donor meeting

* An action group nominated Andrei Bogdanov, the leader of the Democratic Party of Russia, who advocates integration into the European Union, to run in presidential elections in March 2008

* Moscow has called on Belgrade and Pristina to continue negotiations on the status of Kosovo, and hopes that a compromise is still possible, Russia's UN envoy Vitaly Churkin said

* Russia signed an agreement with Belarus granting the former Soviet republic a $1.5 billion stabilization loan for 15 years at an interest rate of libor +0.75% and with a grace period of five years

* Russia's Strategic Missile Forces (SMF) may adopt a new ballistic missile system in the next decade, an SMF spokesman said

*  The emergence of Dmitry Medvedev as a front-runner in Russia's 2008 presidential polls has seen an avalanche of patent applications for alcohol products featuring his name, a Russian daily said

* Russia successfully launched a Soyuz-FG carrier rocket with a Canadian satellite on board from the Baikonur space center in Kazakhstan

* Russia and South Korea are considering setting up a joint venture on uranium production and developing services in the area of nuclear fuel cycle, a joint document said

* Russia will not provide data on its Armed Forces stipulated under the CFE treaty at an annual information exchange meeting, a Russian diplomatic source said

* Russian Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin has met with his jailed deputy Sergei Storchak, charged with attempting to embezzle $43 million, the minister's press secretary said

* Russian soprano Anna Netrebko, 36, was awarded the 2008 Musician of the Year by one of the world's most prestigious music editions

WORLD

* Kosovo is ready to declare unilateral independence, but will coordinate its moves with the U.S. and the EU, Hashim Thaci, the leader of the province's Democratic Party, said

* Britain's Foreign Office has issued a sharp statement in response to accusations by Russia's foreign minister that Britain violated international law, in the latest row over the British Council in Russia

* Belarus is ready to back Russia regarding the deployment of a U.S. missile shield in Central Europe, President Alexander Lukashenko said

* Islamist movement Hamas will not recognize the state of Israel and will not end armed resistance, Hamas said in a statement on the 20th anniversary of its establishment

* An UN climate conference in Indonesia could be extended until Saturday after differences between the U.S. and Europe on greenhouse gas emissions, a source in the UN Secretariat said

* The death toll in the Caribbean in the aftermath of Tropical Storm Olga has risen, with at least 38 dead and many more missing, local newspaper reports said

* An explosion hit a funeral procession in the Gaza Strip, killing at least three people and injuring over 30, a Palestinian health ministry spokesman said

* NASA has postponed the Atlantis shuttle launch until January 10 to let staff spend the festive season with their families, the space agency's website said

* Hamas law enforcement officers have arrested Omar Al-Ghoul, an aide to the Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad and an outspoken critic of Hamas, a spokesman for the interior ministry said

BUSINESS

* Russian President Vladimir Putin said that Russian-Belarusian relations are strengthening and that bilateral trade will hit a record $24 billion this year

* Gazprom and South Korea's gas corporation Kogas are discussing possible options for Russian natural gas deliveries to the East Asian country, a Russian official said

* North Korea agreed to hold trilateral talks with Russia and South Korea on a railway project linking the Korean peninsula with Russia's Trans-Siberian Railway, the industry watchdog head said

* The construction of an LNG plant at the Shtokman gas field in the Barents Sea will be launched in the second quarter of 2008, the operator head said