Main news of October 22

RUSSIA

* Russia's Strategic Missile Forces (SMF) successfully launched an RS-18 (SS-19 Stiletto) intercontinental ballistic missile from the Baikonur space center in Kazakhstan, the SMF said

* A car exploded outside a hotel in the center of Vladikavkaz in the Russian republic of North Ossetia, wounding deputy city mayor Mairam Tamayev, a law enforcement official said

* Russia's agricultural regulator said 20 Belarusian milk and poultry companies will be banned from exporting their products to Russia as of November 1 due to flaws in quality control

* Russia was ranked 141st out of 173 countries in the 2008 press freedom index published by the international organization Reporters Without Borders

WORLD

* Russia welcomes Washington's decision to host an international summit on the global financial crisis on November 15, the Kremlin press service said

* The Somali pirates holding the MV Faina Ukrainian vessel threatened to kill the crew tomorrow, Ukraine's Segodnya newspaper said

* NATO will continue patrolling Baltic airspace until at least 2011, the chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff told the Latvian president

* A senior Qatari government official said the country welcomes the creation of a Gas Troika forum involving Russia, Iran and Qatar for regular natural gas dialog, Qatari newspaper Al-Rayah reported

* Russia's Foreign Ministry believes media speculation about the possibility of a war over the Arctic are ungrounded and "alarmist," an ambassador at large said

* India launched its first unmanned mission to the moon , becoming the third Asian country to do so after Japan and China

BUSINESS

* The Central Bank of Russia will auction 400 billion rubles ($15 billion) in unsecured loans on Thursday, the bank's press service said