Main news of November 23

A roundup of what has happened in the past 24 hours

WORLD

* Ukraine's president has said he will prioritize national energy security and broker more favorable natural gas contracts with Russia if re-elected

* Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili was the first to drive a sports car over a new bridge in Georgia's Gori district on Monday, inaugurating a "road to Abkhazia"

* At least 29 civilians were massacred in a struggle between political clans in the Maguindanao province in the southern Philippines on Monday, the national news agency PNA reported

* Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has proposed launching a debate with U.S. leader Barack Obama on global issues, but does not seek direct negotiations with Washington, an Iranian official said

* Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko pledged on Monday in an election campaign statement to force Russia's Black Sea Fleet to leave Ukraine's Crimea by 2017

* At least 29 people have died in a ferry accident off Indonesia's Riau islands, with and 245 rescued and 17 still missing, national media reported

* The death toll in a coal mine explosion in northeast China's Heilongjiang Province has reached 104, the Xinhua news agency said on Monday citing the Xinxing Coal Mine officials

RUSSIA

* President Dmitry Medvedev has said Moscow wants to build a closer union with Belarus, but has not invited the country to become part of Russia

* Russia does not regard the EU's Eastern Partnership program for closer ties with ex-Soviet states as useful, but will not seek to impede it, the Russian president said

* President Dmitry Medvedev has denied widespread reports that Russia has tried to persuade Belarus to recognize the pro-Russian republics of Abkhazia and South Ossetia as independent states

* Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said on Monday that direct popular elections for regional governors will not be reinstated during his term of power

* Eight servicemen were killed and two injured on Monday in a new explosion at an arms depot in the city of Ulyanovsk, in Russia's Volga region, a Defense Ministry spokesman said

* A Moscow priest who was shot down by a masked gunman last week was laid to rest at a church cemetery in the capital's west amid tight security

* The launch of a Proton-M carrier rocket bearing the European Eutelsat W7 satellite has been delayed, the Russian Federal Space Agency Roscosmos said

BUSINESS

* Russian natural gas prices will be 30-40% lower for Belarus than for EU states in 2010, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said