Main news of December 23

RUSSIA

* Russian energy giant Gazprom refuted late Tuesday Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko's statement that Ukraine had resolved the gas dispute with Russia

* A group of Russian Pacific Fleet vessels will reach the Indian Ocean in two days, where joint Russian-Indian naval exercises are to be held next year, a fleet spokesman said

* Moscow has called on the European Union to try and influence Ukraine to prevent a disruption in Russia gas to EU states in the new year over Kiev's gas debt, the energy minister said

* Russia's foreign minister accused the United States on Tuesday of reneging on a promise not to allow Georgia membership in NATO if it ventured to attack breakaway South Ossetia

* A probe into Georgia's aggression against its breakaway province of South Ossetia has been extended until April 2009, the head of Russia's special investigations committee said

* Ukraine's failure to pay for natural gas supplied to the ex-Soviet republic is depriving the Russian economy of additional investment and damaging domestic producers, a Gazprom spokesman said

* The test launch of a Bulava intercontinental ballistic missile, capable of breaching anti-missile defense systems, from a submarine was unsuccessful, a source at the Belomorsk naval base said

* The association of journalists in Russia's Far East has demanded a probe into the brutal treatment of reporters by police during protests against car tariff hikes in the Pacific city of Vladivostok at the weekend

* Six people died in a fire near the town of Dmitrov some 40 km (24 miles) north of Moscow, a spokeswoman for the local emergencies service said

WORLD

* Three Russian warships left the Cuban capital of Havana on Tuesday after the first such visit to Moscow's longtime Latin American ally since the collapse of the Soviet Union

* Iran's president said on Tuesday that international and unilateral sanctions against his country had failed to achieve their goals and simply encouraged Iran's development

* The United Nations is planning to hold a summit in the spring or summer of 2009 to address the global financial crisis, Russia's envoy to the UN said

* Georgia is ready for any kind of talks with Russia, but only if Moscow recognizes Georgia's territorial integrity, the Georgian president said

* Russia and Moldova have signed their largest ever contract on electricity supplies to Moldova, the country's deputy economy and trade minister said

* Even though Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin has traded his presidential chair for that of the premier, he still remains the most popular politician in the country, according to a recent survey

* The unilateral 24-hour ceasefire called by Palestinian militants to allow humanitarian aid into the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip has ended, an Israeli radio station announced

* The death toll in a bus crash in Egypt's eastern Sinai Peninsula has risen to seven, a spokesman for the Russian embassy in Cairo said

* China has successfully orbited its third meteorological satellite, the Fengyun-2-06, the country's central television CCTV reported

* Astronauts aboard the International Space Station successfully completed their spacewalk on Tuesday, Russia's Mission Control said

BUSINESS

* The headquarters of the Gas Exporting Countries Forum will be set up in Doha, the capital of Qatar, the country's deputy prime minister said

* Russia's prime minister proposed on Tuesday turning the gas exporters' forum into an official organization to be based in St. Petersburg and said Russia could cover the cost

* Russian energy giant Gazprom approved its 2009 investment program of 920.4 billion rubles ($33 billion) at a board meeting

* The Gas Exporting Countries Forum (GECF) has no intention of becoming a gas cartel similar to the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), a Gazprom senior executive said