Main news of September 1

A roundup of what has happened in the past 24 hours

WORLD

* The European Commission will study a Russian-Polish gas deal to make sure it complies with European Union legislation, European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso said following a meeting with Poland's President Bronislaw Komorowski

* Ukraine hopes to find a compromise on the price at which Russia supplies it with gas, Ukrainian Prime Minister Mykola Azarov has said, calling the current formula "enslaving"

* Ukraine will downsize its military while building up its combat capability, Defense Minister Mykhaylo Yezhel has said

* A day after Russia strongly condemned an attack on its embassy in Minsk, Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko retaliated by saying that "thugs and scoundrels" from Moscow may be to blame

* Russia's warning to its nationals against visiting Georgia is part of an "anti-Georgia campaign," the south Caucasus state's deputy foreign minister has said

* Prime minister of the Palestinian National Authority Salam Fayyad has condemned Tuesday's killing of Israelis in the West Bank

* U.S. President Barack Obama has said brutal murders by Hamas militants would not prevent Washington from ensuring Israel's security and pushing for peace in the region

 

RUSSIA
* Russian President Dmitry Medvedev will visit China, South Korea and Japan this autumn

* Russia's chief health inspector Gennady Onishchenko has said he fully supports the ban on night sales of alcohol which comes into force in Moscow on September 1, and hopes similar bans will be applied across the country

* Russia has signed a "historic" contract on Mi-17 helicopter deliveries to Argentina, a member of a Russian delegation has said

* Moscow Region Governor Boris Gromov is going to ask President Dmitry Medvedev and Prime Minister Vladimir Putin to take into account the opinion of citizens who support the construction of a controversial highway through the Khimki forest north of Moscow