Main news of August 8

RUSSIA

* Russian troops set off for the capital of breakaway South Ossetia to help peacekeepers amid a spiraling conflict with Georgia, which tried to regain control of the region, a top military spokesman said

* Russian President Dmitry Medvedev:

- said Russia will punish those guilty of killing Russian nationals in South Ossetia

- ordered that humanitarian aid be provided to people affected by the ongoing conflict between Georgia and its breakaway region of South Ossetia, the Kremlin said

* Two Tu-160 Blackjack strategic bombers completed a patrol mission over the neutral waters of the Arctic Ocean and the Atlantic, a Russian Air Force spokesman said

* A court in central Russia ordered the leader of a doomsday sect that recently spent more than six months underground waiting for the apocalypse to undergo compulsory psychiatric treatment

WORLD

* Georgia said it had seized control over almost all towns and villages in its breakaway republic of South Ossetia, following a major ground and air offensive

* Former Chinese gymnastics champion Li Ning lit the Olympic flame high above the National Stadium in Beijing to mark the start of the 2008 Summer Games

* The Bushehr nuclear power plant currently being built by Russia in southern Iran may be launched later in 2008, an Iranian vice president said

BUSINESS

* Vladimir Strzhalkovsky, the former head of Russia's tourism agency, was elected as CEO of Norilsk Nickel, Vladimir Potanin, chairman of the metals giant's board of directors said

* Transneft's unconsolidated net profit calculated to Russian Accounting Standards increased 15% year-on-year to 2.3 billion rubles ($97 million) in the first half of 2008, Russia's monopoly pipeline operator said