Main news of August 9

A roundup of what has happened in the past 24 hours

WORLD

* An Israeli raid on a Gaza-bound aid flotilla in May was justified, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said

* Tbilisi expressed an official protest over the Russian president's recent visit to the former Georgian republic of Abkhazia, the Georgian Foreign Ministry said

* Kyrgyz President Roza Otunbayeva has lifted the state of emergency and curfew declared in southern Kyrgyzstan two months ago amid interethnic violence, the Kyrgyz government's spokesman said

* North Korea fired several artillery rounds toward a disputed maritime border with South Korea in the Yellow Sea, the Yonhap news agency reported

RUSSIA

* The Russian Orthodox Church has collected 6.5 million rubles ($217,000) for those affected by wildfires, the Moscow Patriarchate said on its website

* Russia's grain harvest in 2010 may total just 60 million metric tons, or 38% less than last year, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said at a government presidium meeting

* The NASA Terra and Aqua satellites registered 377 hotspots from wildfires across Russia on Monday, down 65 from Sunday, according to the ScanEx website that receives information from the satellites

* Russia has recently seen the longest unprecedented heat wave for at least one thousand years, the head of the Russian Meteorological Center said

* The number of deaths in Moscow has increased to 700 daily during the deadly summer with record-breaking heat and toxic smog smothering the Russian capital, the head of the Moscow healthcare department said

SPORTS

* Russia grabbed gold in the men's 4x100m freestyle relay event at the 2010 European Swimming Championships in Budapest

BUSINESS

* The Russian state-controlled oil company Rosneft has paid Yukos Capital 12.9 billion rubles ($400 mln) in overdue debt, a company spokesman said