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Main news of December 21

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RUSSIA

* Russian President Vladimir Putin attended the launch ceremony of a new Toyota plant, which opened near his home town of St. Petersburg in northwest Russia

* Russian President Vladimir Putin has congratulated Lee Myung-bak on his December 19 election as South Korea's new president, and has invited him to visit Russia

* Russia's Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said the country would veto a United Nations resolution granting independence to Serbia's Albanian-dominated breakaway province of Kosovo

* Russia's Culture Agency said it is waiting for the U.K. to send the text of a law guaranteeing the safety of paintings from Russian museums before allowing an art exhibition to go ahead in London

* PACE President Rene van der Linden said he hopes Russia's newly elected lower house will soon officially abolish the death penalty in the country

* A crisis in Russia-U.K. relations was the cause of the closure of the British Council's regional offices in Russia from January 1, 2008, Russia's ambassador to London, Yury Fedotov, said

* A five-day fire that earlier killed four sailors and injured another four on a boat sailing under the Cambodian flag in Russia's Far East has subsided, a local rescue service spokesman said

* Russia's agricultural watchdog has sent Poland's veterinary service a list of Polish companies approved to export food and agricultural produce to Russia, Rosselkhoznadzor said

* Former U.S.S.R. president, Mikhail Gorbachev, said he did not support the recent changes to election legislation adopted by the State Duma, the lower house of parliament

* An asteroid, which is believed to be on a collision course with Mars, will not affect the Earth if it hits the 'Red' planet in January 2008, a Russian Academy of Science spokesman said

* The operator of the Nord Stream gas pipeline has submitted an application to the Swedish government for permission to lay its offshore pipeline system within the Swedish Exclusive Economic Zone

WORLD

* A suicide bomb attack apparently aimed at Pakistan's former interior minister killed up to 60 people and injured around 40 in a blast at a mosque in the northwest of the country

* Israel may consider the possibility of a long-term ceasefire with Hamas in exchange for an end to rocket attacks, Infrastructure Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer said

* The European Court of Human Rights has acknowledged the admissibility of a Russian World War II veteran's complaint against Latvian authorities, the plaintiff's lawyer said

* Poland's President Lech Kaczynski has approved the government's proposal to withdraw Polish troops from Iraq by October 31, 2008, local radio said

* A fire that left two workers dead at Japan's biggest ethylene plant in Kashima near Tokyo has been put out, Japanese media said

BUSINESS

* VimpelCom, Russia's second largest mobile operator, said it has offered to buy 100% of telecommunication giant Golden Telecom for $105 dollars per share, bringing the total to $4.3 billion

* Russia's environmental watchdog has raised the sum of a lawsuit against the Baikal pulp mill from $19.2 million to $129.3 million, a deputy watchdog head said

* Russia's aluminum giant RusAL said an agreement to buy a blocking stake in Norilsk Nickel, the world's largest nickel producer, had come into force

* Airbus has signed a deal with Vietnam Airlines and a leasing company to buy 30 passenger aircraft, a national news agency reported

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