Main news of September 4

RUSSIA

* Russia's NATO envoy Dmitry Rogozin said that Moscow could suspend cooperation with the military alliance on Afghanistan over the recent Georgia crisis

* Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov urged the deployment of "unbiased" observers in South Ossetia

* Tu-142MK aircraft from Russia's Northern Fleet conducted on September 2-3 reconnaissance flights over the Barents and Laptev seas and successfully tested new electronic on-board equipment, the fleet's press service said

* Vanity Fair magazine has ranked Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin the world's most influential person in its 'New Establishment' top-100 to be published in the next issue, the magazine said in a statement

*  Researchers exploring the depths of Siberia's Lake Baikal have found that its unique ecosystem has kept the water cleaner than previously thought, despite industrial waste

* The Russian Union of Evangelical Christians said it had requested Russian prosecutors to open a criminal investigation against a TV channel that broadcasts the popular South Park cartoons

* Five militants were killed in a counter-terrorist operation that has been completed in Russia's North Caucasus republic of Daghestan, an operational headquarters spokesman said

* Former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev will receive Liberty Medal Award in 2008 for his role in ending the Cold War, the U.S. National Constitution Center said

WORLD

* U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney urged the "free world" to rally with Georgia against what he called Russia's invasion, and pledged to bring Georgia into NATO

* Foreign ministers from the members of the Collective Security Treaty Organization blasted Georgia's attack on breakaway South Ossetia and supported Russia's contribution to peace in the region

* Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili reinstated a visa regime for Russia, which was briefly toughened in the wake of a military conflict over South Ossetia

* Ukrainian Parliament Speaker Arseniy Yatsenyuk said the Our Ukraine party, headed by the country's president was pulling out of the pro-western ruling coalition after just nine months in power

* Serbian President Boris Tadic will meet with Kosovo leader Fatmir Sejdiu only for talks on the region's future status, the Serbian president's press service said

* French President Nicolas Sarkozy has asked his Syrian counterpart Bashar Assad to use his country's ties with Iran to ensure the Islamic Republic does not produce nuclear weapons, and urged Syria to seek direct peace talks with Israel

*  The leaders of the Caspian countries will gather for their third summit in Azerbaijan in October or November, Iran's deputy foreign minister said

* Nicaragua is taking final steps to officially recognize South Ossetia and Abkhazia, in line with the decision of President Daniel Ortega, a deputy foreign minister said

* Ukraine is planning to conduct large-scale air defense exercises with live firing on the Crimean peninsula at the end of September

* Israel imposed an embargo on arms supplies to Tbilisi a week before Georgia attacked its breakaway region of South Ossetia, the Israeli ambassador to Russia said

* Tropical Storm Hanna has raged through Haiti, killing at least 61 people, and may transform into a hurricane before it hits the U.S., the National Hurricane Center in Miami warned

* At least 23 miners were killed in a gas explosion that hit a coal mine in northeast China, the country's Xinhua news agency said

BUSINESS

* BP and Russian shareholders at TNK-BP approved a deal to end their protracted dispute over the joint oil venture's management, including agreeing to remove the CEO and appoint independent executives

* Japan's accumulated investment in Russia has reached $4-6 billion, a senior Russian economics ministry official said

* The state-run Russian Technology Corporation, the Moscow government and the administration of Eastern Siberia's Krasnoyarsk Territory agreed to incorporate several airlines into one on the basis of the AiRUnion alliance

* Russian steelmaking giant Severstal said its net profit to International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) grew 69% year on year to $1.94 billion in the first six months of 2008

* Severstal paid $26.6 million for a 100% stake in a Kazakh gold producer, and $1.35 billion for two U.S. companies, WCI Steel and Esmark Inc, the Russian steelmaking giant said

* NLMK, one of Russia's largest steel producers, said it will acquire the U.S. hot-rolled steel producer Beta Steel from a group of private shareholders for an all-cash payment of $400 million

* A Moscow court sanctioned  the arrest of a vice president and a deputy security chief at the Euroset company, Russia's largest mobile handset retailer