Main news of August 3

A roundup of what has happened in the past 24 hours

WORLD

* Iran warned the United States of the consequences of any attack on the Islamic Republic, the ISNA news agency said

* The goal of a police advisory group of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) in Kyrgyzstan is to restore trust in police, the Kyrgyz Foreign Ministry said

* The Supreme Court of Poland declared July's early presidential polls valid as reported violations had no impact on the outcome

* Moldovan ex-president Vladimir Voronin was barred by the country's Constitutional Court from future participation in presidential polls

* The North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) and the Russian Air Force will hold their first-ever joint air defense exercise on August 8-11, NORAD said

* Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko has promised to recognize the independence of Abkhazia and South Ossetia, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said

RUSSIA

* A Russian nuclear center in the Nizhny Novgorod region is safe despite wildfires raging nearby, the head of the Federal Atomic Energy Agency Rosatom said

* Russian President Dmitry Medvedev ordered Emergency Situations Minister Sergei Shoigu to draw up a special program to boost the firefighting service

* A Russian rapper who received a 10-day jail sentence in southern Russia for publicly insulting police officers is writing poetry behind bars, a spokesman for Volgograd police said

* Russia's Federal Space Agency Roscosmos will launch a probe bearing a neutron generator to study the moon's surface in 2012, a leading space researcher said

BUSINESS

* Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin demanded that state-controlled companies expedite the introduction of innovation solutions in their manufacturing processes.

* Russia's largest beer producer, Baltika, has started exporting beer to Brazil and Mexico, the company said

* Russia could lose up to $13 billion due to an extensive arms embargo imposed on Iran over its controversial nuclear program, a Russian arms trade expert said

* Kuwait is calling on Russia to cooperate more closely with OPEC, the Arab state's information and oil minister said

* Vyksa Steel Works, part of Russia’s United Metallurgical Company (OMK), has had to periodically suspend production due to fires in the Nizhny Novgorod region where the plant is located, the head of the plant said

* The International Monetary Fund (IMF) said it expected Russia's economy to expand in 2010 after a contraction last year, but warned the government it should start reducing budget spending and launch long-awaited structural reforms

* Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has ordered the Prosecutor General's Office to solve a shareholder conflict within the world's largest nickel manufacturer Norilsk Nickel, a Kremlin source said

SPORTS

* Zenit St. Petersburg are set to pay Porto 22 million euros for Portuguese international Bruno Alves, O Globo said