Main news of August 11

 WORLD

* Belarus will sign a post-Soviet regional security deal if it believes there is any benefit in signing it, President Lukashenko said

* Russian President Dmitry Medvedev announced he was holding off sending Russia's new ambassador to Ukraine over Kiev's anti-Russian policies

* A Dutch correspondent has filed a lawsuit against Russia with the European Court of Human Rights over the war between Russia and Georgia in August 2008, Radio Netherlands Worldwide reported

* Finnish owner of a cargo ship, crewed by Russians, that went missing off Portugal's Atlantic coast on August 1 has asked Russia to assist in tracing the vessel, which may have been hijacked

* Slovakian authorities announced a day of national mourning for 20 miners killed by a blast in a mine in Handlova, central Slovakia, national media reported

* At least 87 people were injured when a powerful earthquake, measuring 6.5 on the Richter scale, struck the Shizuoka Prefecture in central Japan, Japanese media reported

* A Bangkok court turned down a U.S. request for the extradition of Russian businessman Viktor Bout, wanted by Washington on suspicion of illegal arms trafficking

RUSSIA

* Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has urged steps be taken to trace those behind the killings of human rights activists in Chechnya, a senior Kremlin official said

* Russian rights groups said Chechnya had become unsafe for NGOs following the latest murder of a children's charity head and called for a thorough probe into the slaying, Human Rights Watch in Moscow said

* Moscow said that President Medvedev's decision to delay the sending of a new ambassador to Ukraine did not signal a break or freeze in relations with Kiev

* Russia's NATO envoy said the new secretary general of the alliance had reaffirmed his commitment to ending the "dark chapter" in the history of relations with Russia

* Russia will create a new generation of air and space defenses to counter any strikes against its territory by 2020 due to a potential foreign threat, the Air Force commander said

* Russia is ready to consider new military cooperation proposals from Venezuela, Prime Minister Putin said

* Medical experts in Siberia's Novosibirsk Region say they are concerned at the possibility of a new potent hybrid virus developing from swine and bird flu which could threaten human lives

* Over 400 Russian companies will participate in the MAKS-2009 air show outside Moscow on August 18-23, the Federal Service on Military and Technical Cooperation said