Main news of August 16

A roundup of what has happened in the past 24 hours

WORLD

*A senior Romanian diplomat who was detained in Moscow while trying to obtain military secrets from a Russian national has been declared persona non grata and ordered to leave the country within 48 hours, the Federal Security Service (FSB) said

*France is concerned about Iran's plans to construct a new uranium enrichment facility in 2011, a spokeswoman for the French Foreign Ministry said

*Iran is awaiting an official response from international intermediaries to hold talks on a nuclear fuel swap that includes Turkey and Brazil in the negotiation process, ISNA news agency said

*Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has no intentions of talking with Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko during a forthcoming Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) informal summit, Russian respected business daily Kommersant said

*Russia will lift a ban on poultry imports from 68 U.S. companies whose production processes meet Russian requirements and will leave a ban on the production of the remaining 19 that have not met the country's sanitation demands, Agriculture Ministry spokesman Oleg Aksyonov said

*A total of 57 political parties have registered to participate in the forthcoming Kyrgyz parliamentary elections due in October, a Kyrgyz Central Elections Committee representative said

*The presidents of Russia, Afghanistan, Pakistan and Tajikistan are set to hold a quartet meeting in Russia's southern Black Sea resort city of Sochi on August 18, the Kremlin's press service said

 

RUSSIA

*Russian President Dmitry Medvedev called on oligarchs to help the victims of the wildfires raging across Russia

*The International Space Station (ISS), which has been in orbit for 10 years, could continue work for another decade, the head of the Federal Space Agency (Roscosmos) said

*The flagship of Russia's Black Sea fleet, the RFS Moskva guided-missile cruiser, has left the port of Colombo, concluding its first official visit to Sri Lanka, a Navy spokesman said

*The Russian Economic Development Ministry has proposed launching the Arktika (Arctic) satellite system from 2014, the head of the Federal Space Agency (Roscosmos) said

*Russia has postponed the latest test launches of the ill-fated Bulava ballistic missile for at least two weeks due to raging wildfires in the central regions of the country, a Russian newspaper said

*Areas affected by wildfires in Russia were reduced by some 8,000 hectares over the past 24 hours, the Emergencies Ministry said

*Ecologists have warned that the abnormal heat wave in Russia this summer could cause mass deaths of fish and insect-eating animals and even force waterfowl to migrate earlier

*Russia will withdraw from the International Scientific-Technical Center (ISTC) agreement, according to a Russian presidential order

*Russian opposition and human rights activists applied to the Moscow City Hall to hold a March of Dissent on August 31 at the Triumfalnaya Square in downtown Moscow, the Other Russia opposition party executive committee head said

*A Moscow court extended the custody of former Yukos head Mikhail Khodorkovsky and his business partner Platon Lebedev for another three months

*An appeals court in Thailand will make its final ruling August 20 on the extradition of Russian businessman Viktor Bout to the United States on alleged charges of arms trafficking, Bout's lawyer said

*Law enforcement agencies and special services of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) member states will start antiterrorism drills in southern Russia's Saratov Region

*Russia will retain leading positions on the world grain market despite a ban on grain export until the end of the year

SPORTS

*Russia will do everything possible to host the World Cup in either 2018 or 2022, the Russian sports minister said

*The Russian national team won most of the medals at the 30th European Swimming Championships in Hungary's Budapest between August 4 and 15 to finish first in the overall medals standings

*A FIFA delegation is to arrive for a three-day official visit to Russia to consider Moscow's bid to host the 2018 or 2022 World Cup