Main news of August 14

RUSSIA

* Russia's ambassador to NATO, Dmitry Rogozin, warned the West that its stance on the situation in Georgia would affect Russia's relations with North Atlantic organization

* A Russia-NATO naval exercise in the Sea of Japan has been cancelled after the United States and Britain refused to send their warships, a spokesman for Russia's Pacific Fleet said

* Russia's Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said that the country could increase its peacekeeping contingent in Georgia's breakaway republic of South Ossetia

* Top Russian investigators have opened a criminal case on charges of genocide in connection with recent events in South Ossetia, a General Prosecutor's Office spokesman said

* Russia's General Staff said it was concerned by the nature of cargoes the United States was airlifting to Georgia, questioning if they were really humanitarian aid

* A Moscow court ruled Thursday to suspend Robert Dudley, who heads the Russian-British joint oil venture TNK-BP, from office for two years, a spokesperson for the company

* U.S. oceanologists will dive to the floor of Siberia's Lake Baikal next week aboard the Mir-1 and Mir-2 mini-submarines, a spokesman for the Baikal preservation foundation said

WORLD

* U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Russia faces international isolation if it does not honor a ceasefire with Georgia

* The leaders of South Ossetia and Abkhazia said their breakaway regions would seek independence from Georgia after signing a peace plan to resolve their conflict with Tbilisi at a meeting in Moscow with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev

* Libya said the conflict in Georgia and its breakaway republic of South Ossetia has signaled an end to the dominance of the United States in global affairs, a Russian daily reported

* Europe's main security and human rights watchdog said it planned to increase its military monitors in Georgia from the current eight to 100 in the wake of fighting between Russia and Georgia over breakaway South Ossetia

* Syrian President Bashar al-Assadand and his Lebanese counterpart Michel Suleiman agreed to establish full diplomatic relations between their countries for the first time since gaining independence from French rule

* At least 12 children drowned and many are missing after a school bus plunged into a river in southwest India, national media said

BUSINESS

* The Russian antimonopoly watchdog found mining giant Mechel guilty of breaching anti-competition laws

* Japan Oil, Gas and Metals National Corporation (JOGMEC) announced plans to join oil deposit exploration and development in the Republic of Yakutia in northeast Russia, the republic's administration said

* Gazprom increased gas exports to Europe and former Soviet republics 11%, year-on-year, in the second quarter of 2008 to 61 billion cubic meters, the Russian energy giant said

* Russian oil company Surgutneftegaz said its net profit calculated to Russian Accounting Standards increased 80% year-on-year in January-June 2008 to 72.66 billion rubles ($2.9 billion)