Main news of December 20

A roundup of what has happened in the past 24 hours

WORLD

*Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko said he was ready to "put up with anything" to preserve ties with Russia

*Yesterday's presidential elections in Belarus were marred by a "flawed" vote count, the OSCE said and decried the "heavy-handed" police response to last night's opposition rallies, calling for the government to account for those detained

*Observers from the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) believe that the presidential elections in Belarus were transparent and democratic

*Ukrainian Opposition leader Yulia Tymoshenko said the country's Prosecutor General's Office has brought official charges against her for misusing government funds

*The U.S. State Department praised Pyongyang's decision not to respond to South Korean military drills

*Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan sent a letter to the U.S. President Barack Obama, urging him not to pass a resolution recognizing the Armenian genocide, Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said.

*North Korea has allowed UN nuclear inspections to resume after talks with visiting New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson, CNN reported

*The UN Security Council failed to adopt a statement on North Korea on Sunday after nine-hour discussions due to diplomatic differences

RUSSIA

*The Other Russia Coalition Leader Eduard Limonov applied to the Russian Justice Ministry to register a new political party of the same name

*Russia's Constitutional Court ruled that the state must fully compensate former soldiers who have been suffering after emergency operations at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in 1986

*Russia's state arms procurement program through 2020 provides for the development of a new heavy ballistic missile, a leading missile designer said

BUSINESS

* Russia's Mobile TeleSystems, one of the country's top three mobile operators, may suspend operations in Turkmenistan, MTS spokeswoman Yelena Kokhanovskaya said

* Uralkali, one of Russia's leading fertilizer producers, will merge with Silvinit, the country's top potash fertilizer producer, creating one of the world's largest fertilizer producers in a deal involving $1.4 billion in cash and a share swap, Uralkali said

* The Russian-Indian second prototype T-50 fighter aircraft will take to the skies in early 2011, United Aircraft Corporation (UAC) President Alexei Fyodorov said

*Russian Gazprombank and Sistema Shyam Teleservices Ltd. (SSTL), an Indian subsidiary of AFK Sistema, an oil to services conglomerate, signed a mandate letter to organize a $200 million syndicated loan, the bank said