Main news of April 8

A roundup of what has happened in the past 24 hours

WORLD

* The Russian and U.S. presidents, Dmitry Medvedev and Barack Obama, signed a new treaty on the reduction of strategic offensive weapons to replace the START 1 treaty, which expired in December 2009

* Russian President Dmitry Medvedev called for increased Russian- U.S. economic cooperation, stressing that Russia needs to learn from the experience of the United States in modernizing its economy

* Kyrgyz President Kurmanbek Bakiyev, who fled the capital Bishkek amid violent opposition protests, said he no longer has any real power but vowed not to resign, local news agency 24.kg reported

* Russia threw its weight behind the provisional Kyrgyz government, which took power in the capital and several regions of the ex-Soviet Central Asian state after two days of violent protests in which 74 people died and more than 500 were injured

* Russia has sent some 150 paratroopers to its Kant airbase in the ex-Soviet Central Asian republic of Kyrgyzstan to ensure the safety of families of Russian military staff, the General Staff chief Nikolay Makarov said

* Georgian opposition leaders warned the authorities that the country could see a Kyrgyz scenario if opposition activists continue to be arrested

 

RUSSIA

* Russia will have to build port facilities if it decides to purchase a French Mistral helicopter carrier for the Russian Navy, Russian Deputy Defense Minister Vladimir Popovkin said

* Russia and Poland have agreed on long-term gas supplies to Poland and are due to sign all formalizing documents shortly, Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said

* Ukraine's national energy company Naftogaz and Russian energy monopoly Gazprom have agreed to increase natural gas deliveries to Ukraine this year from 33.75 bcm to 36.5 bcm, the Ukrainian energy ministry said

* Anatoly Dobrynin, the Soviet ambassador to the U.S. during the Cuban Missile crisis, has died at the age of 91, the Kremlin said

BUSINESS

* The London High Court has lifted a freeze in the U.K on the assets of Russian state-run oil major Rosneft in a lawsuit filed by former managers of now defunct oil giant Yukos, a Rosneft representative said

* Russia halted from April 1 the imports of Ukrainian steel pipes duty free over the failure of the two ex-Soviet republics to agree on a quota for the second quarter of 2010, the Federal Customs Service reported

* The construction of the second stage of a pipeline to pump Russian natural gas to Europe via the Baltic Sea will not be delayed over reduced gas demand, the project operator's financial director said