Main news of August 17

RUSSIA

* Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said during a telephone conversation with his French counterpart Nicolas Sarkozy that Russian troops would start their pullout from Georgia on August 18

* Russian President Dmitry Medvedev speaks for larger role of Europe's main security and human rights watchdog in the Georgian-South Ossetia conflict zone, the Kremlin press office said

* Russia rejected the Georgian authorities' statements that Russian peacekeepers had allegedly occupied the Georgian villages of Khashuri and Akhalgori

* The armed conflict between Georgia and Russia over breakaway South Ossetia wiped $7 billion off the Russian stock market, Russia's Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin said

* Three miners were killed following an accident at a coal mine in southwest Siberia, a local representative of Russia's industrial safety watchdog said

* Russia's Yelena Dementyeva won the gold medal in the final of women's tennis event of the 2008 Summer Olympic Games in Beijing, after beating her compatriot Dinara Safina 3-6, 7-5, 6-3

* Russia's Gulnara Galkina-Samitova won the gold medal in the women's 3000m steeplechase at the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games, setting a new world record

WORLD

* The political fate of Georgia's breakaway republic of South Ossetia must be decided by South Ossetians themselves, Europe's main security and human rights watchdog said

* The international community will provide all necessary aid to refugees from war-torn South Ossetia following Georgia's assault on its breakaway republic, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe said

* Israel approved the early release of some 200 Palestinian prisoners as a goodwill gesture to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, the press office of the Israeli cabinet said

* Iran successfully launched its first domestically built satellite, Iranian news agency IRNA reported