Main news of August 23

A roundup of what has happened in the past 24 hours

WORLD

* The head of Egypt's Department of Fine Arts under the Ministry of Culture has been detained in connection with the theft of Van Gogh's Poppy Flowers from a museum in Cairo, Egypt's MENA news agency reported

* Russian businessman Viktor Bout, due to be extradited from Thailand to the United States on arms trafficking charges, has been transferred to an isolation cell

I Iran has launched production of the Zolfaqar and Seraj 1 class missile boats, Defense Minister Brigadier General Ahmad Vahidi said

* Turkey will strike four countries, including Russia, from its list of external security threats in a bid to revise the country's national security strategy, national media reported

* A dismissed policeman armed with an automatic rifle seized a bus in the Philippine capital with 25 passengers on board, most of them Hong Kong tourists, in a bid to demand his reinstatement, police said

RUSSIA

* At least four militants were killed and two policemen wounded in a shootout in Russia's North Caucasus republic of Ingushetia, a spokesman for the local investigation committee said

* Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has nominated candidates to replace the unpopular governor of Russia's Baltic exclave of Kaliningrad, Georgy Boos, the Kremlin press service said

BUSINESS

* A consortium of companies building the Nabucco gas pipeline designed to pump natural gas from the Caspian region to Europe bypassing Russia has delayed its plans to include Iran in the project, the consortium said

* The Russian consumer rights watchdog may ban U.S. poultry imports after half a billion U.S. eggs were recalled last week amid a salmonella outbreak, the service's chief said

SPORTS

* Russian skater Evgeni Plushenko has been suspended from competitions organized by the International Skating Union (ISU), the ISU's official website said

* Only three Russians remained among the world's top 100 tennis players, according to the weekly Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) rankings list