Main news of April 20

A round up of what happened in the past 24 hours

WORLD
 
* Belarus has no plans to build a "dirty" nuclear bomb but no one can take its enriched uranium stockpiles away from it, President Alexander Lukashenko said

* Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko announced that deposed Kyrgyz president Kurmanbek Bakiyev had arrived in Minsk on his invitation and pledged to provide "personal" protection to his ousted counterpart

* Kyrgyzstan's acting interior minister continues to serve despite reports that police protests in Bishkek had forced his dismissal, an interim government spokesman said

* There will be no "color" revolutions in Belarus, the country's president, Alexander Lukashenko, said

RUSSIA

* Russian President Dmitry Medvedev ordered the Defense Ministry to ensure the security of Russian nationals in Kyrgyzstan and step up the protection of Russian installations against possible attacks by looters, the Kremlin said

* Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has called for an acceleration of a project to create an international financial center in Moscow.

* Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said Russia needs to start a large-scale health-care reform in 2011 and pledged to allocate more than 300 billion rubles ($10 billon) in the next few years to improve health care in the country

* Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin called for Russia's customs procedures to be speeded up by cutting red tape and bringing order to customs posts

* Gen. Nikolai Makarov, chief of the General Staff of Russia's Armed Forces, said he will visit the United States to discuss international and regional issues, including arms cuts

* The Russian Defense Ministry has not abandoned its plans to create a military police system and is currently studying foreign experience in the field, Minister Anatoly Serdyukov said

BUSINESS

* The state should not increase its presence in the economy and should remove obstacles to the development of free enterprise in the country, Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said

* A project group under the presidential council for financial markets will oversee Russia's efforts to establish an international financial center in Moscow, a Kremlin aide said

* Russia will completely eliminate the requirement for new business startups to get prior state approval, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said, noting that Russian entrepreneurs still faced too many restrictions

* Russian GDP growth this year could exceed the official forecast of 3.1% and reach 4%, Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin said