Main news of October 25

A roundup of what has happened in the past 24 hours

WORLD

* At least 136 people were killed and more than 500 wounded in one of this year's deadliest attacks in Iraq on Sunday

* U.S. President Barack Obama has condemned Sunday's terrorist attacks on the Iraqi capital that killed over 130 people

* The death toll in shootouts between rival drug gangs in Rio de Janeiro has risen to 42 people, local police reported

* Four UN nuclear inspectors arrived in Iran early on Sunday to inspect the country's second uranium enrichment facility near the city of Qom, the Xinhua news agency reported

* Senior U.S. and North Korean negotiators held a meeting on Saturday in New York to discuss the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula and the resumption of stalled nuclear talks, a U.S. diplomat said

RUSSIA

* Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said Sunday after talks with his Finnish counterpart Matti Vanhanen that he hopes the Nord Stream gas pipeline will be built on schedule

* The interior minister of the Russian republic of Tuva in southern Siberia has been dismissed following an incident involving a local policeman who killed a colleague

* Russia switched to winter time at 3:00 a.m. local time on Sunday, and clocks were set back one hour

* The Russian government will not raise export duties on round timber in 2010 and considers it possible to make a similar decision in 2011, Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said

* One of the former Ingush opposition leaders was shot dead by unidentified assailants in Russia's North Caucasus Republic of Kabardino-Balkaria, a local police source said

BUSINESS

* Russia plans to build three small hydropower plants in Tajikistan and hopes to obtain a controlling stake in the project, the Russian energy minister said

* Russia is seeking Finnish investment in timber processing in the Russian Far East, Industry Minister Viktor Khristenko said