Main news of December 11

A roundup of what has happened in the past 24 hours

WORLD

* The incumbent president of the former Georgian republic of Abkhazia will retain the "backbone" of the government if he is reelected

* A contract to deliver armaments to Iraq is the largest one since Ukraine became independent after the fall of the Soviet Union, a deputy head of the state's arms trader Ukrspetsexport said

* Some 800 people died from the À/H1N1 virus in the first week of December, bringing the death toll to 9,596, the World Health Organization (WHO) said in a statement

* North Korea will not agree to resume six-party talks on its nuclear program until the United States agrees to a peace treaty, a pro-North Korean newspaper in Japan said

* Poland and the United States signed Friday a status of forces agreement (SOFA) laying out the conditions for the deployment of U.S. troops on Polish soil

* Leaders of the 27 EU member states have resolved to allocate over 2.4 billion ($3.5 billion) annually to fight global warming in developing countries, Sweden's prime minister said

* Ousted Honduran president Manuel Zelaya should leave the Brazilian Embassy in Tegucigalpa before his term expires on January 27, Brazil's Globonews TV channel said

* The body of the former Greek Cypriot president Tassos Papadopoulos was stolen from his grave on Friday, national television reported

* All 19 miners underground at the time of a gas explosion at a coal mine in western Turkey were killed, national media reported on Friday, citing Turkish Labor Minister Omer Dincer

RUSSIA

* Chechen President Ramzan Kadyrov marked the 15th anniversary of the start of the First Chechen War by calling for the Russian North Caucasus republic to continue to move forward

* A court in the southern Russian republic of Ingushetia sentenced a police officer on Friday to two years in prison for killing a journalist in 2008

* Another victim of last week's Russian nightclub fire died on Friday bringing the death toll to 142 people, the Health and Social Development Ministry said

* A group of youths have attacked the Moscow office of popular Russian daily Komsomolskaya Pravda with smoke bombs and firecrackers, the paper said on its website

* Russia's Emergencies Minister Sergei Shoigu said inspectors had for years turned a blind eye to breaches of fire safety in a Perm nightclub, where a fire claimed 139 lives last week, a Russian daily said

SPORT

* CSKA Moscow lost at home to SKA St. Petersburg 3:2 in a match of the Continental Hockey League on Friday despite the return of former NHL star Vyacheslav Fetisov

* Judicial authorities have evicted world famous Brazilian football striker Romario from his luxurious $4.7-million apartment after it was sold for tax debts, a court spokesman said

* The Ukrainian cities of Kharkov, Lvov and Donetsk finally received UEFA approval on Friday to host Euro 2012 matches, European football's governing body said