Main news of November 19

RUSSIA

* Russia's links with Cyprus will continue to grow in all areas, President Dmitry Medvedev said after signing a declaration on bilateral cooperation with his Greek Cypriot counterpart Dimitris Christofias

* Russia's Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov rejected media allegations that President Dmitry Medvedev's upcoming November tour of Latin American countries is aimed against the United States

* Russian military bases in Georgia's disputed republics of Abkhazia and South Ossetia have been fully staffed with 3,700 personnel each, the chief of the Russian General Staff, General of the Army Nikolai Makarov, said

* Russia is ready to deploy Iskander missile systems to its Kaliningrad Region at any time, the chief of the General Staff said

* Vladimir Kuznetsov, a Russian former UN official convicted by a U.S. court of money laundering, returned to Moscow to serve the remaining 16 months of his jail term

* The deaths of 20 people on board the Nerpa nuclear submarine could have been caused by a computer glitch, not a crew member, a Russian daily reported

* Russia's international reserves declined by $97.6 billion in January-October, the Central Bank of Russia said

* Russia's Reserve Fund declined by $3.34 billon and its National Prosperity Fund by $1.66 billion between November 1 and November 17, Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin said

* Foreign investment in Russia fell 13.8%, year-on-year, in January-September to $75.8 bln while accrued foreign capital rose 27% from a year ago to $251.3 bln, the country's top statistics body said

* Russia's Central Bank has cut its investment in bonds with U.S. mortgage agencies Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac from $65.6 billion to $20.9 billion as of November 1, the bank's chairman, Sergei Ignatyev, said

* The three men charged with involvement in the October 2006 murder of Russian investigative journalist Anna Politkovskaya have pleaded not guilty, a defense lawyer said

* Russian penitentiary officials said that former Yukos executive Svetlana Bakhmina has been moved from a prison to a maternity clinic outside Moscow, confirming her lawyer's report earlier this week

WORLD

* NATO member countries should restore relations with Russia, including in the military sphere, the NATO Parliamentary Assembly has said in a resolution

* The UN General Assembly on social and humanitarian issues has adopted a draft resolution proposed by Russia on tackling a rise in the glorification of Nazism and the desecration of WWII monuments

* International talks in Geneva on security in the Caucasus and the return of refugees in the wake of the August Russia-Georgia conflict produced some progress, the UN and EU mediators said

* Russian envoy to NATO Dmitry Rogozin said that the Western alliance should take part in a summit on European security scheduled for next summer, involving Russia, the U.S. and the EU

* Russia has called on the United Nations to revise the international system of arms exports in view of the August conflict with Georgia, Russia's envoy to the UN, Vitaly Churkin, said

* The Russian and French navies are coordinating efforts to fight piracy off the Somali coast, Captain 1st Rank Igor Dygalo, an aide to the Russian navy commander, said

* An Indian frigate has sunk a pirate "mother ship" in the Gulf of Aden after coming under attack, the Indian Navy said

* Somalia would like to see more Russian warships helping the country fight piracy off its coast, the country's ambassador to Moscow, Mohamed Handule, said

* Ukraine insists the Stalin-era famine known as the Holodomor was an act of genocide against the Ukrainian people, but does not blame any individual state for it, the country's President Viktor Yushchenko said

* The Council of the European Union has granted a 50.7-million euro ($64 million) loan to Georgia to help tackle the country's refugee problem, the organization's press service said

* One billion dollars has been transferred to Belarus's National Bank as part of the first tranche of a $2 billion stabilization loan issued by Russia, the bank's spokesman said

* Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has said that Raul Castro is to make his first visit to Venezuela since assuming the Cuban presidency "within the next few days", regional media reported

BUSINESS

* South Korea's Hyundai Heavy Industries has launched a new 104,000-dwt oil tanker ordered by Russia's Primorsk Shipping Corporation (PRISCO), the PRISCO press office said

* Imperial Energy, a British oil company operating in West Siberia and Kazakhstan, said it had relinquished its Kazakh license to concentrate on Russian interests