Main news of February 8

RUSSIA

* Russian Deputy Prime Minister Sergei Ivanov welcomed the U.S. readiness to consult Russia on a planned missile shield system in Europe

* Russia intends to discuss a new nuclear arms pact with the United States as soon as the U.S. side is ready for that, Deputy Prime Minister Sergei Ivanov said

* Russia's decision to create military bases in Abkhazia and South Ossetia will not be reviewed, Deputy Prime Minister Sergei Ivanov said

* Russia's new, digitally-controlled Progress M-01M series spacecraft was "buried" at a "spaceship cemetery" in the southern Pacific, Mission Control said

* The Russian missile frigate Neustrashimy, which took part in the anti-pirate operations in the Gulf of Aden, returned to its home port of Baltiysk in the Russian enclave of Kaliningrad

* Russia's women tennis players secured a place in the semifinals of the Federation Cup after cruising to a 3-0 lead over China in Moscow

* The trade union leader of a car factory recently opened by the global car-maker General Motors in St. Petersburg said he had been attacked by two unidentified assailants

* One person died and the other was rescued in an avalanche on the border between the Republic of Khakassia and the Kemerovo Region in southwest Siberia, the regional emergencies center said

WORLD

* At least 24 people died after a small passenger plane crashed into a river in Brazil's Amazon jungle, the country's firefighting service said

* Iranian scientists are working over the creation of four new satellites for their placement into a near-Earth orbit, Iranian Communications Minister Mohammad Soleimani said

* A delegation from the radical Palestinian movement Hamas is continuing consultations aimed at achieving a long-term ceasefire deal with Israel in the Gaza Strip, a member of the Hamas leadership said