Main news of November 24

Main news of November 24

WORLD

* U.S. President Barack Obama has promised to announce his decision next week on increasing troops in Afghanistan and tell the American people his "comprehensive strategy" in the military campaign

* Any further sanctions against Iran are unnecessary until Tehran has provided an official reply to the UN nuclear watchdog's fuel processing proposal, the Russian Foreign Ministry said

* A state of emergency was declared in parts of the Philippines on Tuesday as 24 bodies were discovered in a shallow grave, bringing the death toll from a politically-motivated massacre on Monday to 46

* Iran has said it is willing to send its low-enriched uranium abroad, but would require explicit guarantees from the United Nations nuclear watchdog that it will receive high-enriched uranium for its research reactor

* The launch of Iran's Bushehr nuclear power plant, delayed for technical reasons, will take place by the end of March 2010, the country's Foreign Ministry said

*Two businessmen have been executed in China over last year's melamine-tainted milk scandal, in which at least six children died, the Xinhua news agency reported

* The maiden nighttime test launch of India's nuclear-capable intermediate-range Agni-II ballistic missile failed, the Times of India said

* Brazilian parliamentarians protested against Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's visit to the South American state, local media reported

* Iran's armed forces have completed the first stage of a large-scale air defense exercise to protect the country's nuclear facilities, the ISNA news agency quoted the air force and air defense staff as saying

RUSSIA

* Russian President Dmitry Medvedev sacked a number of high-ranking officers after two explosions at an arms depot in the city of Ulyanovsk, in Russia's Volga region

* Russia's Foreign Ministry sent a note of protest to Japan over a document describing the Southern Kuril islands as "territory occupied by Russia."

* Russia's Foreign Ministry has dismissed as groundless a recent claim by a U.S. nonproliferation expert that Moscow is helping Iran build nuclear weapons

* A new test launch of Russia's troubled Bulava submarine-launched ballistic missile (SLBM) will be carried out by the end of 2009, a defense industry source said

* Russia is preparing an answer to an interstate claim brought by Georgia to the Strasbourg Court against Russia's actions in South Ossetia last August, the Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman said

* Russian prosecutors launched a probe into the recent death in prison of a lawyer representing London-based hedge fund Hermitage Capital, a spokeswoman for the Russian Prosecutor General's Office said

* Russia expects its gross domestic product to decline less than projected in 2009 and grow 3-4% next year, Central Bank First Deputy Chairman Alexei Ulyukayev said

* The headless bodies of a court bailiff and a police officer have been found in the southern Russian republic of Kabardino Balkaria, a security official said

BUSINESS

* Russia's Gazprom and Ukraine's Naftogaz agreed to reduce Russian national gas deliveries by 35% in 2010, from the previously contracted 52 billion cubic meters to 33.75 bcm

* Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko said the transit fee for Russian natural gas must be increased much more than the earlier reached accords

* The presidents of Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan will sign a deal on a Customs Union between the three ex-Soviet republics in Minsk on November 27, the Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman said

* Gazprom's Board of Directors approved the energy giant's investment program for 2010, stipulating 5.4% growth in investment from the current year to 802.4 billion rubles ($27.8 billion)

* The official dollar rate set by the Russian Central Bank for November 25 is 28.8481 rubles, up 4.95 kopeks, the Central Bank

* A delegation of Ukrainian state-owned oil and gas company Naftogaz will visit Moscow to hold talks with Russian energy giant Gazprom and sign documents excluding fines for Ukraine

SCIENCE

* Astronauts Robert Satcher Jr. and Randy Bresnik have completed a third, final spacewalk, fulfilling all assignments they were supposed to, NASA said

 

SPORT

* Rubin Kazan drew 0:0 with Ukrainian champions Dynamo Kiev in a snowy Kazan to move level on point with group F leaders Inter Milan

* The Russian Football Union will elect a new president on February 3, the organization's executive committee announced after accepting Vitaly Mutko's resignation

* Guus Hiddink will decide on his future with the Russian national side before the end of the year, Russia's sports minister said