Main news of September 21

WORLD

* Ousted president Manuel Zelaya, who returned to Honduras on Monday after a June coup, said he plans to start dialogue with the de-facto government, a number of sources said

* President Manuel Zelaya ousted from Honduras in June has returned to his country, TeleSur, pan-Latin American television channel, reported

* The Palestinian radical Islamist group Hamas criticized on Monday the Palestinian president after he agreed to meet with the Israeli prime minister in New York

* Iran's president said on Monday he was proud he had managed to enrage the West in denying the Holocaust during his speech in Tehran on Jerusalem Day, Israeli media reported

* A 6.3 magnitude earthquake in the isolated Himalayan country of Bhutan has left at least seven dead, Al Jazeera reported

* The sixth round of talks on a new nuclear arms reduction deal between Russia and the U.S. opens on Monday in Geneva

RUSSIA

* Russian President Dmitry Medvedev urged Switzerland on Monday to take a more active role in global efforts to tackle the ongoing economic slump

* Russian President Dmitry Medvedev expressed his gratitude to Switzerland for its role in mediating between Moscow and Tbilisi on Monday during a two-day official visit to Bern

* An arbitration court has accepted a bankruptcy suit against the producer of Russia's famed Kalashnikov assault rifles, Russian media reported

* Russian and Chinese warships have completed a joint anti-piracy exercise which involved escorting a convoy of 23 merchant vessels in the Gulf of Aden, a Pacific Fleet official said

* Russia will not settle for any new missile defense system unless it has a role in it, the chief of the General Staff said

* A Spanish criminal court has granted early release on parole to 15 Russian sailors arrested last year in Spain on drug trafficking charges, the sailors' Russian lawyers said

* Russia's Progress M-67 cargo spacecraft successfully undocked on Monday from the International Space Station (ISS), a Russian Mission Control spokesman said

* The first Russian patrol boat has arrived in Abkhazia to protect the maritime borders of the former Georgian republic which has been recognized by Russia as an independent state, the Vesti television reported

* Russia's health ministry denied on Monday reports of Russia's first swine flu fatality, saying the cause of death was pneumonia

RELIGION

* The head of the Russian Orthodox Church on Monday held a liturgy in a church in southern Moscow to celebrate the Nativity of the Theotokos

* A Christian couple who own a hotel in Liverpool are awaiting trial on charges of breaching public order laws in a dispute with a Muslim guest earlier this year, British media reported

BUSINESS

* Standard & Poor's has upgraded the long-term credit rating of Russia's third largest mobile firm MegaFon to BBB- from BB+ with a stable outlook, the international rating agency said

* Sberbank is ready to issue a 20 billion-ruble ($660 million) loan for the restoration of the Siberian hydropower plant seriously damaged in a fatal accident in August, the head of Russia's state savings bank said