Main news of August 21

RUSSIA

* Suicide bombers on bicycles carried out four blasts in the capital of Russia's North Caucasus republic of Chechnya, leaving at least four police dead and two injured

* Nineteen more bodies have been found at the disaster-hit Sayano-Shushenskaya hydropower plant in south Siberia, bringing the official death toll to 47, emergencies officials said

* Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin visited the site of a deadly accident at Russia's largest hydropower plant

* A woman who was severely burned when two fighters crashed during a rehearsal for the MAKS-2009 air show just outside Moscow has died in hospital, a health official said

* Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin attended the launch of state oil giant Rosneft's Vankor deposit in East Siberia

* The Finnish owner of the Arctic Sea ship, which was missing in the Atlantic for more than two weeks until it was found on Monday, wants reliable information on the crew, the Solchart company said

* A Moscow court sentenced two students to 14 and 15 years in prison for killing a former economic expert in the government and aide to the speaker of the upper house of parliament

* Russia has delivered 2,500 metric tons of flour as food aid to Zimbabwe, the Russian Foreign Ministry said

* The Russian Air Force and the Tactical Missile Weapons corporation signed a 6 billion ruble ($190 mln) contract for modern air-launched missiles, the force's commander said

* The number of new swine flu cases in Russia has fallen due to a ban imposed in some Russian regions on schoolchildren visiting foreign countries, Russia's chief sanitary official said

* Russia's three representatives in the Europa League returned from their first-leg playoff travels without a win between them, but with their chances of progress to the group stages intact

WORLD

* Spokesmen for incumbent President Hamid Karzai and ex-premier Abdullah Abdullah have both said their candidate won an outright majority in Thursday's presidential polls, national media said

* The number of officially confirmed Typhoon Morakot victims has reached 153, with 464 people missing and feared buried in landslides, China's Sina news agency reported

* Ukraine's parliament overrode President Viktor Yushchenko's veto on a new presidential election law at an emergency session

* Ukraine's parliament rejected the president's veto on plans to allocate $1.25 billion from the state budget to build facilities for the Euro-2012 soccer championship

* Russia and Ecuador have signed a memorandum on civilian nuclear power cooperation, a spokesman from Russia's state-controlled civilian nuclear power corporation Rosatom said

* South Ossetia will seek to join the union being formed by Russia and Belarus, the former Georgian republic's leader, Eduard Kokoity, said

* Kazakhstan's first satellite, KazSat-1, has been put into orbit for a 'space burial,' the country's mission control reported

BUSINESS

* Rosoboronexport and Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd (HAL) have signed a contract at the MAKS-2009 air show on the delivery of 26 RD-33 series 3 engines to India, Russia's state arms exporter said

* The U.S. Department of Commerce has approved a new long-term contract for imports by a U.S. company of Russian low-enriched uranium, Russia's state nuclear company Atomenergoprom said