Main news of August 23

RUSSIA

* Russian troops will patrol the Georgian Black Sea port of Poti, Col. Gen. Anatoly Nogovitsyn, the deputy chief of Russia's General Staff, said at a news conference

* One more Russian ship, the mine-sweeper Turbinist, returned from Georgian waters to the Black Sea Fleet's base in the Ukrainian port of Sevastopol

WORLD

* NATO has sent a Polish frigate and a U.S. destroyer through the Bosporus to boost its presence in the Black Sea, where it is delivering humanitarian cargoes to Georgia, a source in the Turkish navy said

* South Ossetia's President Eduard Kokoity and parliamentary leadership arrive in Moscow to deliver the republic's sovereignty appeal to the Russian authorities in person

SPORTS

* Maxim Opalev won Russia's 18th gold medal of the 2008 Beijing Olympics with a come-from-behind victory in the men's canoe single 500m final

* Russia's team of synchronized swimmers won Olympic gold in the free routine event final, putting the country clear in third place in the medals table

* Russia's Evgeniya Kanaeva won gold in the rhythmic gymnastics' individual all-around final at the Beijing Olympics

* Russia won the silver in the women's 4x400-meter relay at the Beijing Olympics and followed that up with the bronze in the men's event

* Russia's women's handball team was forced to settle for silver after rivals Norway won the Olympic final in Beijing

*  Russia's Sergei Ulegin and Alexander Kostoglod took silver behind China in the final of the Men's Flatwater Canoe Double 500m

* Russian cyclist Irina Kalentyeva won Olympic bronze in the women's mountain bike race

* Russia continued its strong finish to the 2008 Olympics with three more bronze medals on the penultimate day of the Beijing Games