Main news of August 26

A roundup of what has happened in the past 24 hours

WORLD

*Three residents of the Sudanese city of Port-Sudan have frozen to death in a fridge while seeking shelter from the heat, local media said

*Ukraine will not rush to demarcate its border with Russia in the Kerch Strait so as to avoid damaging Ukraine's national interests, the head of the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry's information policy department said

*The Palestinian National Authority will ask the UN Security Council to reestablish the 1967 border with Israel if direct Mideast talks fall through, the Palestinian ambassador to Russia said

*The U.S. State Department has sent a letter to the Thai Foreign Ministry withdrawing its second extradition request for alleged arms smuggler Viktor Bout, a Thai Foreign Ministry spokesman said

*Fifty armored personnel carriers sent by Russia to the Palestinian National Authority are stuck in Jordan because of Israeli red tape, the Palestinian ambassador to Russia said

*Iran has proposed to Russia establishing a nuclear consortium to supply fuel to the Bushehr plant and other nuclear power plants that will be set up in the future, Iran's nuclear chief said

*The number of U.S. companies allowed to export poultry to Russia may be increased by the end of the week, a representative for Russia's sanitary watchdog, Rosselkhoznadzor, Alexei Alekseyenko said

*Tajik President Enomali Rakhmon called on Tajiks to start building up food reserves amid soaring grain prices, suggesting that each family stockpile enough basic foodstuffs to last two years

*The former Georgian republic of South Ossetia is celebrating its second anniversary of independence

*The U.S. State Department has congratulated Moldova on the successful detention of three men suspected of trying to sell about two kilograms of uranium

*A day after a reported failed attempt to snatch the suspected Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout to the U.S., a spokesman for the Department of State expressed hope that Thailand would complete the extradition process soon

*North Korean leader Kim Jong-il reportedly paid a visit to China on Thursday morning, possibly to discuss his possible successor

*Yevgeny Chichvarkin, a fugitive Russian businessman living in the U.K., said he would join a Russian opposition rally in defense of the right for peaceful assembly to be held outside Moscow's embassy in London on August 31

*Israeli President Shimon Peres reiterated his country's concerns about Tehran's nuclear ambitions at a meeting with the International Atomic Energy Agency chief Yukiya Amano

*The government of Kosovo, Serbia's ethnic-Albanian-dominated province which unilaterally declared its independence in 2008, said it would allocate five million euros ($6.3 million) for the "integration" of Serb-populated north

*Thai parliamentary opposition tried to accuse the ruling coalition of using the high-profile extradition case against alleged Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout to fabricate terrorism charges against an opposition leader

 

RUSSIA

*Russian President Dmitry Medvedev signed a decree on Thursday on the suspension of the construction of a controversial highway north of Moscow, the Kremlin said

*A lack of money may jeopardize the creation of a Moscow museum dedicated to Russian composer Sergey Rachmaninoff, the head of the Rachmaninoff Society said

*Russian President Dmitry Medvedev ordered the suspension of the construction of a controversial highway threatening a forest north of Moscow

*The Russian opposition plan to gather on central Moscow's Triumfalnaya Square on August 31 despite the authorities' plans to close the area to build an underground car park, a leading human rights activist said

*Warships from the Black Sea Naval Group, the Blackseafor completed the active stage of three-week drills, the Russian Black Sea Fleet press service said

*At least two Amnesty International volunteers were arrested while handing out flyers at a U2 gig in Moscow on Wednesday night, Ekho Moskvy radio station said

*Russia's Krasnoyarsk Region has introduced a two-week moratorium on increases in the price of flour and bread so it can establish the costs involved and set fair prices for bakers and consumers

*Russian President Dmitry Medvedev will discuss possible participation of Swiss companies in the Skolkovo research hub project with his Swiss counterpart Doris Leuthard, who will pay a working visit to Russia