Main news of September 24

RUSSIA

* Russia sees no crisis surrounding Iran's nuclear program and does not believe it is necessary to take any urgent steps, the Russian foreign minister said in comments on a decision to cancel six-nation talks on Iran on the sidelines of the current UN General Assembly session

* Naval task groups from Russia's Northern Fleet joined large-scale Russia-Belarus military exercises now in their third day, the fleet's press service said

* The Neustrashimy (Fearless) frigate from the Baltic Fleet left the main naval base in Russia's Baltic exclave of Kaliningrad on an unspecified long-range patrol mission, a Navy spokesman said

* Ruslan Yamadayev, a former member of the Russian parliament's lower house, the State Duma, was gunned down in central Moscow, an Interior Ministry official said

* One person was killed and 34 injured in a brawl and subsequent fire overnight in a high-security prison in Russia's Volga city of Samara, local prosecutors said

* Russia loses up to $20 billion a year as a result of corruption, the country's interior minister, Rashid Nurgaliyev, said

* Russia believes Ukraine made "the only correct" move in withdrawing a resolution on the Stalin-era Holodomor famine from the UN Human Rights Council, the Foreign Ministry said 

* The Russian federal broadcasting commission recommended extending the license of the 2x2 TV channel, which shows cartoons aimed at a young adult audience and is facing charges of promoting extremism 

WORLD

* Three people were killed and two went missing after Typhoon Hagupit hit China's southern coastal province of Guangdong, the Xinhua news agency reported

* Conservative former foreign minister Taro Aso became Japan's prime minister, after the ruling party outvoted the opposition in the divided parliament

* The United Nations nuclear watchdog said North Korea has expelled international nuclear inspectors and will start work on restoring its Yongbyon reactor, largely dismantled as part of an international deal

* Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko condemned at the UN General Assembly session Russia's "armed annexation" of Georgia's breakaway regions and said his country would not recognize South Ossetia and Abkhazia as independent states

* The Sea Launch consortium successfully put a new telecommunications satellite into orbit from its ocean-based platform in the Pacific, a company spokesperson said

* Pakistani air defenses downed a U.S. drone in the northwestern South Waziristan region of the country, near the Afghan border, the Tolo TV channel said

* The world's largest particle collider has been shut down due to a helium leak into the tunnel housing the device and will not be restarted until spring, the operator's press service said

* Russia's permanent mission at the NATO headquarters in Brussels urged the military alliance to stop hindering the work of the Russia-NATO Council

* The parliament of Georgia's breakaway Abkhazia, recognized by Moscow as an independent state on August 26, ratified a treaty on friendship and cooperation with Russia 

BUSINESS

* Russian steel producer Severstal [LSE: SVST; RTS: CHMF] said it had signed a five-year $1.2 billion syndicated loan facility  

* Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, who is currently on a tour of the Magadan Region in Russia's Far East, criticized gold miner Polyus Gold, and told its management not to "whine" 

* Russia's state-controlled VTB Group said its unaudited net profit calculated to International Financial Reporting Standards increased 34.7% year-on-year in January-June to $679 million