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Main news of May 20

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RUSSIA

* Corruption in Russia needs to be made "improper" and public opinion should contribute to this way of thinking, the Russian president said in his regular video blog on the Kremlin website

* The Russian prime minister urged the authorities on Wednesday to try and find areas in the budget that could be cut to allow pensions to be increased, as well as carrying out pension reforms in 2010

* Cooperation between Russia and the EU on tackling the global economic crisis will be a key issue on the agenda of the Russia-EU summit starting on Thursday, a Russian presidential aide said

* One side effect of the Nord Stream project would be an increase in the number of nuclear power plants in Russia, the programs director of Greenpeace Russia said

* Russia is satisfied with the results of the first round of discussions with the United States on a new strategic arms reduction treaty, a diplomatic source close to the talks said

* The Moscow City Court has postponed the hearing of an appeal by jailed Yukos founder Mikhail Khodorkovsky and his business partner Platon Lebedev against a second set of criminal charges against them

* Russia's Admiral Panteleyev destroyer is escorting a convoy comprising five Russian and foreign merchant vessels through the Gulf of Aden, a Russian Navy spokesman said

* Russian actor Oleg Yankovsky, best known in the West for his work with director Andrei Tarkovsky, died on Wednesday morning in a Moscow hospital at the age of 65

* Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Wednesday that a new Russian-U.S. strategic arms reduction treaty must be based on the principle of equal security for both countries

* Russia has put on a hold a contract to deliver MiG-31E Foxhound interceptor-fighters to Syria, a Russian business daily reported on Wednesday, citing defense-industry sources

WORLD

* Russia plans to raise the issue of western support for the policies of the Georgian president during the Russia-EU summit on May 21-22 in the Russian Far East city of Khabarovsk, a Kremlin aide said

* A total of 10,243 people in 41 countries worldwide have been officially diagnosed with the A/H1N1 virus as of 06:00 GMT Wednesday, with 80 deaths, the World Health Organization said in its daily report

* A top Russian senator said difficulties in addressing energy issues will dominate the Russia-EU summit which opens in the Far East city of Khabarovsk on Thursday

* Moldova's ruling Communist Party failed to see its candidate elected as the country's new president on Wednesday, falling one vote short in a parliamentary ballot

* Russia and Egypt are in favor of a meeting of the Middle East Quartet being held in the near future and for renewed efforts in the Palestinian-Israeli negotiations, the Russian foreign minister said

* The death toll following the crash of an Indonesian military transport plane in a residential area of East Java early on Wednesday has risen to 97, local radio reported

* Iranian election officials approved on Wednesday four candidates for the June 12 presidential polls, national media reported

* At least 45 people have died and more than 370,000 have been made homeless by floods in northern Brazil, the National Civil Defense Secretariat said

BUSINESS

* Russia has not yet decided whether to allocate Ukraine a $5 billion loan to help its economy overcome the global recession, a deputy Russian finance minister said

* The index of Russia's leading stock exchange, the RTS, closed above the psychologically important level of 1,000 points

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