Main news of August 17

A roundup of what has happened in the past 24 hours

WORLD

* In a tit-for-tat move, Romania declared a top Russian diplomat in Bucharest persona non grata and ordered him to leave the country in 48 hours

* The EU has set aside over 80,000 euros ($104,000) to help Russians affected by wildfires, the Delegation of the EU to Russia said

*Russia is interested in supplying Mi-17 helicopters to Afghanistan and is setting no constraints on a possible deal, a Kremlin aide said

* Afghanistan settlement, the fight against terrorism and drug trafficking will be the main topics on the agenda of a quadrilateral summit in the southern Russian city of Sochi on Wednesday, a Kremlin aide said

* Russia's Emergencies Ministry sent a plane with humanitarian aid to Pakistan severely affected by floods, a ministry spokeswoman, Irina Andrianova, said

* Tajikistan is not cooperating with Iran in the export or reprocessing of uranium, a leading scientist from the Nuclear and Radiation Security Agency of Tajikistan said

* Azerbaijan President Ilham Aliyev said the long-standing Nagorny Karabakh conflict can be easily settled if Armenia withdraws its "occupation forces" from the disputed area, Novosti-Azerbaijan news agency reported

* China has completed assembling its Tiangong-1 space module, the Chinese Defense Ministry said

* At least 19 people died, five are missing and another 153 were injured in an explosion at a fireworks factory in northeast China, the official Chinese news agency Xinhua said

RUSSIA

* At least 30 people were injured after a car exploded in the centre of the southern Russian city of Pyatigorsk, a local emergencies department source said

* Russia will build new football stadiums and reconstruct old ones regardless of the outcome of its bid to host the World Cup, the Russian prime minister said at a meeting with a FIFA delegation in Moscow

*Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin thanked the foreign governments and pilots who contributed to efforts to extinguish wildfires in Russia

* Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has ordered the clearance of all mines in the North Caucasus republic of Chechnya

* Russia's capital was named the fourth most expensive city for foreign workers, or expats, according to a recent survey published by Forbes magazine

* Confidence ratings in Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and Prime Minister Vladimir Putin have grown again, according to a survey by Russian Public Opinion Fund released

BUSINESS

* State-owned Russian Venture Company, or RVC, did not invest government funds in venture projects in 2009-2010, but placed them in bank deposits, the Audit Chamber said

* Russia's largest independent gas producer, Novatek, has completed its first tanker delivery of hydrocarbons via the Northern Sea Route to the Asia-Pacific region, the firm said