Main news of October 31

RUSSIA

* Russia's Foreign Ministry denied claims by the U.S. defense secretary that large amounts of Russian nuclear weapons had been stolen or misplaced

* Russia is ready to guarantee any agreement between Azerbaijan and Armenia on a settlement for the Nagorny Karabakh dispute, a Kremlin source said

* Russia has invited Cuba to join its satellite navigation system, Glonass, Russia's communications minister, Igor Shchegolev, who is currently on a working visit in Havana, said

* Russia has offered Brazil modern methods for the production of uranium, new nuclear power plants and superconducting technologies, Sergei Kiriyenko, the CEO of the Rosatom state nuclear corporation, said

* Russia may sell up to 15 Ka-52 attack/reconnaissance helicopters to foreign customers annually, the chief designer of the Kamov design bureau said

* Russian space technicians have started preparations for the launch of a Zenit carrier rocket with a U.S. Telstar telecom satellite on board, Russia's space agency said

* The legislature in the south Russian republic of Ingushetia approved a new president, following the dismissal of Murat Zyazikov as leader of the troubled region

* Russia's Admiralty Shipyard moved the new enhanced ice-class tanker Mikhail Ulyanov from a dry dock to a wet dock for the final stages of construction work

* A group of Muscovite explorers have warned that Red Square and the Kremlin could sink into the earth due to large underground cracks, Russian media reported

WORLD

* Libyan leader Muammar Qaddafi arrived in Moscow on a three-day official visit at the invitation of Russian President Dmitry Medvedev

* Libya is willing to host a Russian naval base as a means of security against any possible U.S. attack, a Russian business daily, Kommersant, said

* Venezuela and Russia are planning to conduct joint air force exercises in 2009, the Venezuelan air force chief,Luis Acosta, has said

* Palestinian militants have fired two anti-tank rockets at an Israeli patrol near the border fence, in violation of the four-month-old truce, the Israeli army said

* Serbia could obtain EU candidate status in 2009 but it must tackle corruption and create an independent judiciary, the draft of a European Commission report say

* Azerbaijan's new government was formed by President Ilham Aliyev, following his reelection for a second term earlier in the month

* NASA announced it had postponed the Atlantis space shuttle's mission due to carry out repairs to the Hubble space telescope

* The European Court of Human Rights has agreed to consider pleas from two Poles demanding that Russia recognize those killed in the WWII Katyn massacre as war crime victims, and grant access to documents on the massacre

* A mutual visa-free regime came into force between Russia and Macedonia

* The Czech Republic is ready to sign contracts for oil deliveries from Russia without intermediaries, the country's industry and trade minister said

* A Russian drilling platform has started extracting natural gas in the Gulf of Venezuela, the Latin American country's communications ministry said

* At least 23 miners were killed and another six unaccounted for after an explosion at a coal mine in northwest China, the Xinhua news agency said

* At least seven people have been killed and one listed as missing during heavy snow storms in Tibet, the worst to hit the region on record, Chinese media reported

* Searchers have found two large bones, presumably human, near the crash site of a plane belonging to missing adventurer Steve Fossett, local media reported

BUSINESS

* Iran will buy 50 An-148 medium-haul airliners from Ukraine, Kiev's Unian news agency reported

* Russia's state-controlled Vnesheconombank (VEB) has issued $7.8 billion worth of loans to Russian companies to refinance their foreign debts

* LUKoil's net profit in January-September, calculated to Russian Accounting Standards, increased 30.5% year-on-year to 64.9 billion rubles ($2.4 billion), Russia's largest independent crude producer said

* Power Machines, Russia's leading heavy machinery manufacturer, said its net profit calculated to Russian Accounting Standards reached 229 million rubles ($8.6 million) in January-September 2008

* Russia's largest truck producer KamAZ said its net profit calculated to International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) increased 21.7% year-on-year in the first half of 2008 to 4.2 billion rubles ($155 million)