Main news of August 1

WORLD

* Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and his Kyrgyz counterpart Kurmanbek Bakiyev signed on Saturday a memorandum on Russian military presence in Kyrgyzstan

* The European Commission said the EU and Ukraine have reached an agreement to reform the Ukrainian gas sector, and Kiev will be given an international loan to buy Russian gas

* American Honda Motor Co., Inc., is recalling about 440,000 cars over a potentially fatal airbag defect, the automaker said

RUSSIA

* Russia's Defense Ministry is concerned over recent shots on South Ossetia's capital Tskhinval and its suburbs and could use military force to defend the republic's nationals, the ministry said

* The Russian Orthodox Church is commemorating St. Seraphim of Sarov, one of Russia's most prominent monks and ascetics who lived in the 18th-19th centuries

* Russia's prime minister proposed on Saturday introducing tougher responsibility for environmental pollution

* Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin has made a dive to the bottom of the world's deepest lake, Baikal, in the Mir-1 mini-submarine