Main news of December 9

A roundup of what has happened in the past 24 hours

WORLD

* Facebook and Twitter have begun shutting down the accounts of WikiLeaks supporters, used to coordinate hacker attacks on websites critical of the whistleblowing site, world media said

* Belarus will ratify documents on the Unified Economic Space with Russia, Kazakhstan and Ukraine before January 1, 2011, Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko said after summit in the Kremlin

* Russia will cancel oil export duties for Belarus from January 1, if Minsk ratifies all agreements to create a Unified Economic Space, Russia's Economic Development Minister Elvira Nabiullina said

* Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov expressed concern over NATO's integrity after the revelation of the military alliance's plans on defending the Baltic states against Russia.

 

* WikiLeaks supporters launched cyber attacks against organizations they view as the controversial whistleblower website's enemies

RUSSIA

* St. Petersburg Governor Valentina Matviyenko said the construction site for a divisive 400-meter skyscraper will be moved

* Over half of Russians (53 percent) think corruption has increased in their country during the last three years, an opinion poll by Transparency International indicated

* Police detained a 32-year-old base jumper who failed to conquer a 35-storey hotel in the southwest of Moscow after his parachute got hooked on a billboard

BUSINESS

* This summer's abnormal heat and drought will slow Russia's economic growth to 3.7% in 2010 but it will rise to 4.3% next year, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) said

* Yelena Baturina, wife of the city of Moscow's former mayor Yury Luzhkov has sold Russky Zemelny Bank to foreign investors, Gennady Terebkov, a spokesman for Inteco, Baturina's core company, said

*The board of Russia's largest gold mining company Polyus Gold has appointed its Chairman Mikhail Prokhorov as company CEO, Polyus Gold said following a board meeting

* Russia's largest private oil company LUKoil will place bonds worth $1.5 billion convertible into American Depositary Receipts (ADR,) the company said

SPORTS

* The Russian Football Union (RFU) and the All-Russian Fans Union have called on Spartak Moscow fans to refrain from violence during the funeral of a fellow supporter

* British Prime Minister David Cameron congratulated Russia on winning the bid to host the 2018 FIFA World Cup