Main news of August 6

WORLD

* The Georgian parliament unanimously approved on Thursday sending troops to Afghanistan in support of a NATO-led peacekeeping operation in the war-torn country

* Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin and his Turkish counterpart Tayyip Erdogan signed on Thursday agreements on cooperation in the gas sphere

* Egyptian authorities have extended the operation of the Rafah border crossing with the Gaza Strip until Friday, the MENA news agency reported

* The United States has asked Israel to order a one-year moratorium on building in Jewish settlements in the West Bank to unblock the Middle East peace process, Israel's Haaretz daily reported

* The town Aksy in southern Kyrgyzstan, along with the surrounding district, has been quarantined following an anthrax outbreak that has infected at least five people, the country's health ministry said

* Kiev officially notified Moscow on Thursday that it had accepted Mikhail Zurabov as Russia's new ambassador to Ukraine, the press secretary at the Russian embassy in Ukraine said

* Up to 35 people, most of whom were soldiers, died when a bus fell into the Indus River in north Pakistan early on Thursday, The Nation newspaper reported

* Georgia cannot regain the trust of its neighbors until it signs a treaty renouncing violence against its former republics, Russia's Foreign Ministry spokesman said

* An Italian court has turned down a Russian extradition request for a man accused of swindling people out of more than one billion rubles ($32 mln) in a financial pyramid, an Interior Ministry spokesman said

RUSSIA

* Russia will try to strengthen economic ties with both the Greek and the Turkish areas of Cyprus, which should help resolve the division of the island, Russia's prime minister said

* The Caesar Kunikov large amphibious landing ship from Russia's Black Sea Fleet arrived on Thursday to the Bulgarian port of Varna to take part in the 14th Blackseafor naval drills

* Prime Minister Vladimir Putin has ordered the Russian government to officially notify foreign states of Russia's refusal to join the Energy Charter, the government press service reported

* International researchers using two Russian mini-submarines to explore Lake Baikal arrived at a new base in the north of the world's largest fresh-water lake, a member of the expedition told RIA Novosti

* Russia and Kyrgyzstan will seek to address Uzbekistan's concerns over plans to deploy a new Russian military base in southern Kyrgyzstan, the head of a post-Soviet regional security bloc said

* Russia's Gazprom confirmed on Thursday that Ukraine has paid in full for natural gas pumped into its storage facilities in July

BUSINESS

* The prime ministers of Russia and Turkey signed an agreement Thursday on the two countries' nuclear cooperation and Russian firms' participation in the construction of Turkey's first nuclear power plant

SPORTS

* Russian Premier League side Krilya Sovetov were knocked out of the Europa League qualifying rounds on Thursday evening by Irish minnows St Patrick's Athletic