Main news of November 11

A roundup of what has happened in the past 24 hours

WOLRD

* The flag of Russia's legendary Varyag cruiser, sunk in 1904 during the Russo-Japanese war, was handed over to Russian President Dmitry Medvedev in South Korea on Thursday as a token of improving relations between the two countries

* A respected Russian business daily revealed on Thursday the biography of one of the 10 Russian spies arrested in the United States in June, Mikhail Vasenkov, aka Juan Lazaro.

* Russia will not support a U.S. initiative to limit current account balances to four percent of gross domestic product (GDP), a Russian delegation source at the G20 summit said

* Russia is going to halve its budget deficit to 2.9 percent of GDP by 2013 in line with agreements reached at the G20 Group summit in South Korea, a Russian delegation source said

* The recent spy row between Russia and the United States was the result of a betrayal by a Russian intelligence officer, a leading business daily reported

* Russian President Dmitry Medvedev urged the governments of the G20 countries to promote small businesses

* A Russian car maker has acquired a “significant stake” in UK-based Virgin Racing to create a Russian Formula 1 team, Marussia Motors CEO said in an interview with RIA Novosti

RUSSIA

* Local authorities in Russia's Volga Region have authorized the destruction of a batch of 16,600 school notebooks, whose covers laud the success of Nazi aces in dogfights against Soviet pilots during World War II

* Russian journalist Oleg Kashin, who was brutally attacked last week, regained consciousness on Thursday and may be removed from an artificial breathing apparatus, a hospital source said

* Russian Investigative Committee head Alexander Bastrykin ordered a new probe into a 2008 attack on a Russian journalist, Mikhail Beketov, a committee spokesman said

BUSINESS

* Russia's Trade and Industry Ministry has agreed to include Apatit, the country's leading apatite concentrate producer and part of FosAgro holding, into the privatization list for 2011-2013

* Russian oil and gas company Vostok Energy plans to float a third of its shares on the London Stock Exchange in March or April to raise $150-200 million, a banking source said

* Russia's largest private energy company EuroSibEnergo plans to hold an Initial Public Offering (IPO) on the Hong Kong stock exchange to raise $1.5 billion, a source close to the placement told RIA Novosti

* Russia' largest mobile phone and small electronics retailer, Evroset, is preparing an Initial Public Offering (IPO) to place 30 percent of its shares on the London Stock Exchange (LSE) in 2011, Vedomosti business daily reported

* The Russian government is going to cut its stake in Sovcomflot, the country's largest shipping company, to a 75 percent plus one share from the current 100 percent in 2011, via a 12.5 percent new share issue and the sale of a 12 percent share package