Main news of July 29

A roundup of what has happened in the past 24 hours

RUSSIA:

* Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has approved amendments expanding the powers of the Federal Security Service (FSB) aimed at preventing crimes, the Kremlin's press service said

* Test launches of Russia's ill-fated Bulava ballistic missile will resume between August 9 and 12, a defense industry source said

* The RusHydro hydroelectricity company will test the Siberian Sayano-Shushenskaya Hydropower Plant spillway in September, a member of the company's executive board said

* Russia's Federal Service for Consumer Rights and Human Welfare Protection may ban all wine imports from Moldova from Friday, Kommersant business daily quoted the service's chief Gennady Onishchenko as saying

* Moldova's minister of agriculture and food, Valery Kosarchuk, hopes for successful talks with Moscow on Friday on Moldovan wine exports to Russia

* A Russian Black Sea Fleet submarine that malfunctioned last year has started sea trials after major repairs, a source at the Novorossiisk naval base said

* The waters of a polluted Chinese tributary of Russia's Amur River will reach the Russian border on August 4, Russian emergencies officials said

* The flagship of the Black Sea fleet, the RFS Moskva guided-missile cruiser, called in at the Philippines port of Manila for an official visit, a statement from the fleet said

* Construction of the first Russian solar plant may start in the North Caucasus resort city of Kislovodsk in 2011, the chief specialist of the Rostovteploelektroproekt engineering company said

* A group of masked men have trashed an administration building in Khimki outside Moscow in protest over the construction of a toll highway to run through a forest, Russian business daily Kommersant said

* Moscow's heat record was broken for the second time in a week as temperatures soared to 37.7 degrees Celsius (99.86 degrees Fahrenheit)

 

WORLD:

* A river in northern China polluted with dangerous chemicals after heavy flooding on Wednesday will be cleaned up as soon as possible, local officials said

* Experts from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and other organizations will visit Armenia from August 2-6 to examine a platform for the construction of a nuclear power unit, an Armenian State Nuclear Regulatory Committee chairman said

* Tajikistan supports Iran's right to develop a peaceful nuclear program, Tajik Foreign Minister Khamrokhon Zarifi said

* The International Monetary Fund has approved a $15.15-billion standby loan for Ukraine "in support of the authorities' economic adjustment and reform program"

* Belarus and Russia have suggested that Kazakhstan switch to common rail freight tariffs, head of Belarusian Railways Anatoly Sivak said

* Belarus and Ukraine have agreed terms for the rail transit of Venezuelan oil, the head of Belarus Railways said

* The missing pilot, who disappeared after a Russian helicopter was hijacked in Dafur, has been freed, a senior Russian lawmaker said

 

BUSINESS:

* The Primorye regional administration is in talks with developers over the construction of an expansive infrastructure for one of Russia's gambling zones near the Far East city of Vladivostok, the regional governor Sergei Darkin said

* Russia's top bank, state-controlled Sberbank, will fully refinance a $4.5 billion loan, which Russia's state development bank Vnesheconombank (VEB) issued to RusAl, the world's largest aluminum producer, in the midst of the financial crisis, VEB head Vladimir Dmitriyev said

* Russian Internet investment group Digital Sky Technologies (DST), which owns the Mail.ru mailing system, Odnoklassniki.ru social network site and ICQ instant-messaging service, plans to sell 10-25% of its shares on the London Stock Exchange (LSE) in 2011, Vedomosti business daily said, quoting sources close to DST

* The Russian-British oil venture TNK-BP has confirmed that it is in negotiations with British oil giant BP on the acquisition of BP's Venezuela-based assets, a TNK-BP spokesman said

* Russia's Federal Tariff Service has increased the tariff for oil transportation via Transneft's pipeline network by 3.3 percent on average from August 1 and by 9.9 percent on average from December 1, the service said