Main news of October 13

RUSSIA

* Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has signed a bill on insurance of bank deposits, increasing the amount guaranteed to 700,000 rubles ($26,800) from 200,000 rubles, the Kremlin said

* The Progress aircraft maker, based in Russia's Far East, will start production of a new model of the Ka-52 Hokum-B attack/reconnaissance helicopter in October 2008, a company official said

* Russia's future military presence in South Ossetia and Abkhazia is an issue that should be decided by Moscow and the two Georgian breakaway republics, Russia's envoy to the European Union said

* Georgia's aggression in breakaway South Ossetia in August affected more than 5,000 people, Russia's top investigator has told a German newspaper

* Russia's chief mufti has become the first Muslim cleric to receive an Orthodox award, an Orthodox Church leader said

* Moscow will hold an international forum devoted to nanotechnology on December 3-5, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Sergei Ivanov said

* The ruling United Russia party is leading in Sunday's local and regional elections, the country's Central Election Commission said on Monday, citing preliminary results

* A naval task force from Russia's Northern Fleet, led by the nuclear-powered missile cruiser Pyotr Veliky, is leaving the Libyan capital, Tripoli, after a three-day official visit, a Navy spokesman said

* Judges at the Chita District Court overturned a previous court ruling and upheld a joint appeal by former Yukos owner, Mikhail Khodorkovsky, and his business partner Platon Lebedev against a new investigation

* Storm winds caused by a cyclone in the Sea of Okhotsk have raged through Russia's Far Eastern city of Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky

* Three people have died in the East Siberian region of Irkutsk after a domestic row turned violent, a police spokesman said

WORLD

* North Korea will fulfill its obligations to denuclearize, Pyongyang's ambassador to Moscow said Monday, reiterating his country's approval of its removal from the U.S. list of state sponsors of terrorism

* The UN's highest judicial body will consider the legality of Kosovo's unilateral declaration of independence from Serbia for no longer than a year, the Serbian prime minister said

* French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner said Monday that representatives from Georgia's breakaway regions of South Ossetia and Abkhazia would take part in security talks scheduled for Wednesday

* The European Union has dropped its remaining sanctions against Uzbekistan, except for an arms embargo, a source in the French Foreign Ministry said

* Paul Krugman has won the 2008 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences, the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences announced

* Foreign ministers of the 27-member European Union agreed on Monday in Luxembourg to suspend sanctions against the Belarusian leadership for six months, Bulgaria's foreign minister said

* Britain's Prime Minister Gordon Brown said on Monday world leaders should set up a new Bretton Woods system to tackle the global financial crisis

* Family members of over 15 Ukrainians held hostage by Somali pirates for more than two weeks have gathered outside the offices of the Ukrainian president, the Unian news agency reported

* Tehran is counting on the continuation of talks with the Iran Six group of world powers despite a new UN resolution being passed against the country, an Iranian foreign ministry spokesman said

* Five Russian tennis players are in the top 10 of the Women's Tennis Association (WTA) ratings published

* Tajikistan's top prosecutor pledged on Monday to bring to "justice" a foreign-based opposition journalist over calls to overthrow the government of the ex-Soviet republic

* A referendum to postpone the closure of Lithuania's only nuclear power plant until 2012 has failed to reach the required turnout of 50%, the country's Central Election Commission said

* China's three leading dairy companies have apologized for their involvement in the ongoing melamine-tainted milk crisis, the China Daily newspaper has reported

* The global financial crisis has yet to peak, and individual governments must now take appropriate measures to deal with its effects, Russia's finance minister said

BUSINESS

* TNK-BP Holding [RTS: TNBP] said Monday its US GAAP net profit rose 120%, year-on-year, in January-June 2008, to $4.72 billion

* MDM Bank, one of Russia's top thirty banks, said on Monday its net profit increased almost three times in July-September quarter on quarter to 427.77 million rubles ($16.5 million)

* The tough economic situation in Russia and the world will not affect Russian natural gas projects, such as the Nord Stream and South Stream pipelines, the president of the Russian Gas Union said

* Ukraine's energy ministry has approved a Russian company's winning bid to construct a nuclear power plant (NPP), Ukraine's UNIAN news agency reported

* The upper house of Russia's parliament approved on Monday a law on extra measures to support the country's financial system, allowing the issue of subordinated loans to the largest banks and lending to rated Russian banks

* Russia's largest mobile handset retailer, Euroset, said on Monday its net profit calculated to Russian Accounting Standards declined 50.5% year-on-year in the first half of 2008 to 85.2 million rubles ($3.25 million)

* S&P has placed the ratings of Russian diamond miner Alrosa and rail monopoly Russian Railways (RZD) on the CreditWatch list with a negative outlook, the international rating agency said

* Russia's largest mobile handset retailer, Euroset, the subject of a recent takeover, has closed its two subsidiaries in India, a spokeswoman for the company said

* Russia's second largest bank, VTB, will apply to state-controlled national development bank, Vnesheconombank, for a loan to refinance its $11.4 billion foreign liabilities in 2008-2009, VTB CEO Andrei Kostin has said