Main news of December 24

A roundup of what has happened in the past 24 hours

WORLD

* Reuters Moscow said Thursday certain Internet media distorted the true meaning of an interview Chechen President Ramzan Kadyrov gave the news agency recently

* Over 20 people were killed and some 100 injured in separate bomb attacks in Iraq on Thursday during the Shiite religious festival of Ashura, local media reported

* Moscow and Tbilisi have agreed to reopen a border checkpoint closed since July 2006, a Georgian deputy foreign minister said

* Belarus and Venezuela have agreed to invest $8 billion in joint development and production at the Junin-1 oil deposit in the Orinoco River Basin, the Venezuelan oil and energy minister said

RUSSIA

* Russian President Dmitry Medvedev signed Thursday a decree to streamline the law enforcement structure, in particular ordering staff cuts and instituting the rotation of senior personnel at the Interior Ministry

* Russian President Dmitry Medvedev summed up the results of 2009 in a live interview aired by three federal television channels

* The lower house of the Russian parliament on Thursday urged foreign parliaments and international organizations to condemn the destruction of a WWII memorial in Georgia

* The Georgian leadership is a threat to peace and security in the region, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said

* Russia successfully test-launched a Voyevoda (SS-18 Satan) missile capable of carrying 10 warheads on Thursday morning, a Defense Ministry spokesman said

* A total of nine people were killed in a recent mine blast near the Urals city of Nizhny Tagil, Russia's Vesti television said on Thursday, citing local police