Main news of December 15

Russia

* A possible U.S. launch of an interceptor missile from Central Europe may provoke a counterattack by intercontinental ballistic missiles, the Chief of the Russian General Staff, Gen. Yury Baluyevsky said

* Russia's natural gas will be supplied to Belarus in the first quarter of 2008 at the price of $119 per 1,000 cubic meters, a high-placed source in the Russian energy giant Gazprom said

* Russia's Communist Party voted at its congress in favor to nominate its leader Gennady Zyuganov to run in presidential elections in March 2008

* UN nuclear watchdog is fully controlling Iran's controversial nuclear program, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Kislyak said

* A bus explosion in Russia's Volga area city of Togliatti on October 31, which killed eight and injured over 70, was not a terrorist attack, a statement from the local security service said

World

* Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf has lifted the state of emergency in the country and restored the Constitution in full, local television said