Main news of September 9

RUSSIA

* Russia insists that Abkhazia and South Ossetia be invited to take part in international talks in Geneva on their status, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said

* Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has congratulated North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il on the communist state's 60th anniversary, the Kremlin said

* Russia has suggested holding an informal UN Security Council meeting with representatives of Abkhazia and South Ossetia on October 7-8, Russia's envoy to the UN said

* The Russian Foreign Ministry said that a decision by the U.S. to freeze a civil nuclear agreement with Russia was a politically motivated mistake

* Russia's prime minister blasted the country's aircraft manufacturers, saying current production levels were insufficient and that the industry needs a boost

* Russia is not planning to reopen a radar base at the Lourdes facility in Cuba, the Russian foreign minister said

* Russia will deploy regular troops and not Russian peacekeepers in the Georgian breakaway republics of Abkhazia and South Ossetia, the Russian foreign minister said

* Russia's Navy remains a strong force capable of repelling any attack by a potential aggressor, a Navy spokesman said

* Russia has started closing military observation posts in buffer zones near South Ossetia and Abkhazia, a Russian Defense Ministry source said

* Airstrikes on military facilities in Tbilisi delivered by the Russian Air Force during the recent conflict with Georgia did not harm local residents, a senior Russian military official said

* A plaque bearing the name of Oleg Mitvol has been removed from the door of his office at the Russian environmental watchdog, the out-of-favor deputy head of Rosprirodnadzor told RIA Novosti

* More than 10 million illegal immigrants are currently residing in Russia, the Federal Security Service (FSB) said

* The Russian space freighter Progress M-64 reentered the atmosphere and was 'buried' early on Tuesday at a 'spaceship cemetery' in the southern Pacific, a Mission Control spokesman said

WORLD

* Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili gave a cautious welcome to a new deal on the withdrawal of Russian forces from the South Caucasus state

* Asif Ali Zardari, the widower of assassinated former prime minister Benazir Bhutto, was sworn in as Pakistan's president

* Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko said Tuesday after the Ukraine-EU summit in Paris that he expected his country to sign an "association agreement" with the 27-nation bloc in the second half of 2009

* The EU said the Belarus foreign minister has been invited to attend a meeting in Paris on September 15 in a sign that the 27-nation bloc is shifting away from its hard line stance towards Minsk

* Serbia's parliament ratified on Tuesday an agreement on oil and gas cooperation with Russia, including in the South Stream gas pipeline project, signed in Moscow on January 25

* Ukraine is to shut down a radar facility in the west of the country currently being used by Russia, a national space agency official said

* The son of Georgia's first post-Soviet president, Zviad Gamsakhurdia, has entered the fifth day of a hunger strike in protest at his arrest on suspicion of spying for Russia, his lawyer said

* Nine Thai Constitutional Court judges ruled unanimously that the country's prime minister must resign over a breach of constitutional law, the Bangkok Post said

* At least 56 people have been found dead in northern China and hundreds are missing following a landslide that caused waste from an iron ore mine to engulf a valley, the Xinhua news agency said

*  Delays in the completion of the Bushehr nuclear power plant currently being built by Russia in the south of Iran are due to technical problems, a top Iranian official said

BUSINESS

* The Russian-British joint oil venture TNK-BP will hold an initial public offering after 2010, Viktor Vekselberg, one of the four major Russian shareholders in the company, said

* Russian metal giant Norilsk Nickel will not participate in a tender, as part of a consortium of Russian Technology Corp. and Metalloinvest, to develop the Udokan deposit, the CEO of the state-run corporation said

* Russia's state-owned Development Bank (Vneshekonombank) has agreed to loan a subsidiary of the Cuban national airline $44.5 million to buy a Russian cargo plane, VEB said in a statement

* Sitronics posted a $20 million consolidated net loss calculated to U.S. GAAP in the first half of 2008, down 75% against the same period of last year, the Russian microelectronics company said

* CNPC has proposed speeding up talks with Russia on natural gas supplies, a senior official at China's national oil and gas company said at an East Siberian economic forum