Main news of December 14

A roundup of what has happened in the past 24 hours

WORLD

* A number of developing countries proposed on Monday suspending the UN climate conference in Copenhagen and resuming it in June in Bonn, a convention source said

* The first of a total of 30,000 extra U.S. soldiers to be deployed to Afghanistan will arrive in the country this week, the head of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff said

* UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon on Monday urged the observance of sanctions against Pyongyang following last week's seizure in Thailand of a cargo plane loaded with North Korean weapons

* The United States will only agree to sign a peace treaty with North Korea if Pyongyang abandons its nuclear weapons program, a U.S. diplomat said

* Nauru, the world's smallest country, has offered to join Russia in recognizing two Georgia's two former republics as independent states if paid $50 million by Moscow, the Kommersant daily reported

* The Georgian Foreign Ministry declared on Monday that the presidential elections held in its former republic of Abkhazia on Saturday were "illegitimate and illegal"

* A criminal court in Bangkok approved 12 days of custody on Monday for the Kazakh and Belarusian crew of a plane caught transporting arms from North Korea

* The Times newspaper claims to have obtained 'confidential intelligence documents' showing that Iran is testing a final component to build a nuclear bomb

* A meeting between Manuel Zelaya, the ousted president of Honduras, and his elected successor, has been cancelled, the foreign ministry of the Dominican Republic, which was to host the talks, has announced

* Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi was attacked after his party meeting in Milan on Sunday and was taken to hospital with blood on his face, Italian media said

* With more than 12% of ballots counted, a center-right leader Sebastian Pinera leads the presidential vote in Chile, according to the deputy interior minister, who represents the country's central election authority

RUSSIA

* Vladimir Zhirinovsky was reelected on Monday the leader of the Russian nationalist Liberal Democratic Party

* The Russian government on Monday ordered the federal agencies concerned to intensify efforts to join the World Trade Organization (WTO)

* A Proton-M carrier vehicle on Monday orbited three new Glonass-M navigation satellites, a spokesman for Russia's space agency said

* Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and Prime Minister Vladimir Putin congratulated Abkhazia's president, Sergei Bagapsh, on his reelection, the Kremlin said

* Russian President Dmitry Medvedev reiterated on Monday the importance of post-Kyoto deals, regardless of whether scientists' notions of climate change are accurate

* Russia will restrict its greenhouse gas emissions to 25% of 1990 levels by 2020, President Dmitry Medvedev promised

SPORT

* The official logo for Euro 2012, to be jointly hosted by Poland and Ukraine, was unveiled on Monday

BUSINESS

* The leaders of China and three Central Asian countries inaugurated on Monday a natural gas pipeline from Turkmenistan to China

* The government of Abu-Dhabi on Monday provided a $10 billion loan to neighboring Dubai, to save a state-run property company from a looming debt crisis