Main news of August 18

A roundup of what has happened in the past 24 hours

WORLD

*Russia will consider participating in an ambitious project to deliver electricity from Tajikistan to Pakistan, Russia's foreign minister said

*A decision will be made within two months on the possible delivery of 27 Russian Mi-17 helicopters to Afghanistan, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said

*The Swiss government approved on Wednesday the introduction of further United Nations sanctions against Iran over its nuclear program, ATS Swiss Telegraph Agency reported

*India could spend up to $2.34 billion on modernization of its fleet of Su-30MKI Flanker-H fighters with the participation of Russian companies, the country's Defense Ministry said

*The construction of the Bushehr nuclear power plant in Iran promotes the non-proliferation regime, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said

*Russian Federal Air Transport Agency Rosaviatsia has given a green light to Russian S7 Airlines to run regular flights between Moscow and Tbilisi

*Russia hopes to develop economic cooperation with Pakistan, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev told his Pakistani counterpart in Sochi

*Russia's Federal Service for Veterinary and Phytosanitary Surveillance, Rosselkhoznadzor, may impose restrictions on meat imports from Brazil if its veterinary service fails to inspect as soon as possible Brazilian plants supplying meat and poultry to Russia, the watchdog said

*Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said Russia is ready to help the Afghan government in restoring peace in the war-torn country and fighting terrorism

*The upcoming physical launch of the Bushehr nuclear reactor proves that Iran does not need to build indigenous uranium enrichment facilities and could use nuclear fuel provide by other countries, a U.S. State Department spokesman said

*Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and Tajik President Emomali Rahmon will discuss prospects of bilateral trade and cooperation in energy and military-technical areas during Rahmon's visit to Russia on August 18-20

 

RUSSIA

*Russia's president has not taken any decision on scrapping the government's cultural watchdog, which opposes the construction of a 403-meter skyscraper in historic St. Petersburg's city center, a Kremlin source said

*Some of Russia's most famous rock groups will play a concert in downtown Moscow on Sunday to protest a $8 billion highway being built through a forest just outside the Russian capital

*Bucharest has declared a Russian diplomat persona non grata in yet another spy scandal after Moscow detained a Romanian official on similar grounds, a Romanian news agency reported

*The Kremlin may publish the transcript from a CSTO summit in which Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko said he was ready to recognize Abkhazia and South Ossetia, a senior Russian presidential official confirmed

*First half 2010 net profits at Gazprom Neft, the oil division of Russia's energy giant Gazprom, rose 42 percent year-on-year to $1.501 billion to U.S. GAAP, slightly exceeding analysts' expectations, the company said

*Temperatures in Moscow have broken a tenth record since the beginning of August, with temperatures of 32.5 degrees Celsius (90.5 degrees Fahrenheit) recorded on Wednesday, the Fobos meteorological center said

*An investigations committee has launched a probe on how two workers died of alleged suffocation at the Baikal Pulp and Paper Mill in Siberia, a senior aide from the regional investigations committee said

*The Plesetsk space center in northern Russia is about to complete pre-launch preparations of the Rokot carrier rocket, scheduled to blast off in early September, a defense ministry spokesman said

*Moscow authorities have shortened the period during which shops may sell hard alcohol in line with the Kremlin-led campaign to crack down on alcohol abuse, a source in the city administration said

*The Raspadskaya coal company has begun pumping out water from a West Siberian coalmine where some 90 people died in two explosions in May, a representative of the local government said

*A policeman in Russia's Far East unexpectedly took on the role of a doctor in helping a woman give birth at a police checkpoint, a police spokeswoman said

*Four of the victims of a recent terrorist attack in southern Russia will receive medical treatment in Moscow, a local medical official said

*Researchers in Russia's exclave of Kaliningrad have recently found several items which support the theory that the famous Amber Room may still be buried under one of the city's fortifications destroyed during World War II