Main news of December 22

RUSSIA

* A MAN truck with 10 horses in its trailer was stolen on Monday evening from the Central Moscow Hippodrome, Russia's largest racetrack and horse breeding center, a police source said

* Russia is not selling S-300 surface-to-air missile systems to Iran, the Russian federal service for military cooperation said in a statement

* Russia only sells defensive weapons to Iran, in strict compliance with the international nonproliferation regime, Russia's state-run arms exporter said

* Russian sappers have completed an operation to clear an airport near Nis, Serbia's second-largest city, of unexploded ordnance left after the 1999 NATO bombing, a Russian emergencies ministry spokesman said

* Drug police have seized almost 20 kilograms (44 lbs) of Afghan heroin in Moscow in an operation that was conducted in November and December, a senior federal drug control official said

* Russia's upper house of parliament ratified an agreement on Monday with Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan to build a natural gas pipeline along the Caspian coast

* Riot police brutally clamped down on protests against increases in car import duties in Russia's Pacific port of Vladivostok with at least 60 people detained at the weekend

* A total of 215 service personnel in Russia's Armed Forces have committed suicide since the start of the year, the Russian Defense Ministry said

* All of Russia's 83 regions have approved Constitutional amendments to extend presidential and parliamentary terms, the upper house of Russia's parliament said in a resolution

* Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, currently on a visit to Russia, will discuss establishing a unified government and aid to the Palestinians on Monday, a Kremlin official said

* Five people, including four children, died in a house fire in Russia's Volga republic of Bashkiria, a police source said

WORLD

* Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili said on Monday that his country would become a strong state after it signed a framework agreement on a strategic partnership with the United States

* The Paris Club of creditor nations on Monday canceled half of Iraq's $15.6 billion debt in the final stage of a four-year debt reduction program

* Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip unilaterally called a 24-hour ceasefire on Monday in order to let humanitarian aid into the enclave, a spokesman for the Islamic Jihad Movement said

* A Thai court heard testimony from Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout on Monday, and hearings will continue on Tuesday and Wednesday, a Russian Embassy official said

* A Russian sailor taken hostage in Nigeria has been released, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told journalists

* India has not ruled out military operations against terrorists in Pakistan if Islamabad does not deal with terrorists based on its own soil, India's foreign minister told journalists

* Russia said it is against extending the mandate for the Organization for the Security and Cooperation in Europe mission in Georgia, which expires on December 31, Russia's OSCE envoy said

* The Israeli foreign minister has ordered the country's foreign embassies to start a diplomatic campaign to try and gather international support for an offensive in the Gaza Strip, local media said

* Venezuela's leader has set February 15 to hold a national referendum on the country's Constitution allowing the president to be reelected for an infinite number of terms, Venezuela's media reported

* Cubans waited in long lines to step on board the Russian destroyer Admiral Chabanenko, which sailed into Havana Bay on Friday, a RIA Novosti correspondent reported

BUSINESS

* Gaz de France Suez is interested in joining the Nord Stream gas pipeline project as a minority shareholder, Russian energy giant Gazprom said