Main news of July 18

RUSSIA

* Russia's President Dmitry Medvedev urged Iran to fully cooperate with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) over its nuclear program, the Kremlin press-service said

* Russia's Foreign Ministry voiced its concerns over the U.S.-Ukrainian Sea Breeze naval exercises currently underway in the Black Sea

* Moscow has called on Japan not to provoke public hostility toward Russia by publishing school textbooks showing the Southern Kuril islands as territory unlawfully occupied by Russia

* Russia's Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said that a German plan for the resolution of the Georgian-Abkhazian conflict was a step in the right direction, but dismissed a proposed agreement on the return of Georgian refugees to Abkhazia as unrealistic

* Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said after meeting with his German counterpart in Moscow that work must continue to convince the sides in the Georgian-Abkhazian conflict to begin direct talks

* Russia's President Dmitry Medvedev signed a law allowing the government to allocate strategic oil and gas deposits on the continental shelf without auctions

* Russia's migration authorities have extended the visa of Robert Dudley, the CEO of Russian-British joint oil venture TNK-BP, until July 29, a Federal Migration Service (FMS) spokesman said

* Russia agreed to extradite to Estonia Sergei Avramenko wanted by Interpol over a series of robberies and thefts committed in the Baltic republic, the Interpol National Central Bureau Russia said

* A total of 330 pigs have died of the African swine fever virus (ASFV) in Russia's North Caucasus republic of North Ossetia, the local emergency service said

* A brown bear killed two geologists in the northeast of the Kamchatka Peninsula, in Russia's Far East, a local emergencies spokesman said

WORLD

* Abkhazia has rejected a German-proposed peace plan on the resolution of the breakaway Georgian republic's conflict with Tbilisi, the Abkhaz leader Sergei Bagapsh said

* The Supreme Court of Tajikistan has postponed a trial of two suspects in the murder of Russian TV reporter Ilyas Shurpayev until July 22, a defense lawyer said

* Bulgaria has returned to Russia a spent nuclear fuel consignment from a research reactor, the Bosnian news agency SRNA said, citing Bulgaria's nuclear control agency

* Nelson Mandela, South Africa's first black president, who gained world renown for leading the country's transition from a race-divided society to majority rule, marks his 90th birthday

* A typhoon has killed at least six people in Taiwan, the Xinhua news agency reported

BUSINESS

* South Korea's STX shipyard has started building an ice-class tanker with deadweight of 51,000 metric tons for the Primorsk Shipping Corporation, the company based in Russia's Far East said

* Russian steel producer Evraz Group has become the owner of a 19% stake in Australia's Cape Lambert Iron Ore, the Australian Securities Exchange said

* The Ukrainian oil and gas company Naftogaz has stopped tapping Russian gas in excess of a standing contract with Gazprom, the Russian energy giant said

* The Kazakh national energy company KazMunaiGas Exploration Production posted a 19.4% increase in oil output to 5.9 million metric tons (43.3 million bbl) year-on-year in the first half of 2008