Main news of September 13

A roundup of what has happened in the past 24 hours

WORLD

* The International Court of Justice in The Hague began hearings into Georgian claims of Russian human rights violations

* Georgia will not support Russia's accession to the World Trade Organization (WTO), Sergi Kapanadze, director of Georgia's Foreign Ministry's International Organizations Department said

* Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu made clear that he is willing to limit the construction of settlements in the West Bank, but not completely stop it

* A plane with 47 people onboard crashed near Ciudad Guayana in southeastern Venezuela

* UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon will discuss Iran's controversial nuclear program with the country's top officials during the forthcoming session of the UN General Assembly that will open in New York on Tuesday

 

RUSSIA
* Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said:

- Russia will launch a program to develop regional healthcare next year

- The recommendations of the global anti-smoking convention will be reflected in Russian anti-tobacco laws

* Extremists are set to accelerate tensions in the North Caucasus republics since the number of terrorism-related crimes have increased to almost 500 since the beginning of the year, Russian interior minister Rashid Nurgaliyev said

* Moscow Mayor Yury Luzhkov and City Hall intend to will file a suit against state-run TV channels over claims that the mayor used his position to help his wife earn vast sums of money

* The transition to visa-free travel between Russia and the EU is being delayed to a point where it is becoming "indecent," Russia's foreign minister said

* Hearings into Moscow's extradition request for telecoms entrepreneur Yevgeny Chichvarkin will be held in March 2011, a London judge said