Main news of December 24

A roundup of what has happened in the past 24 hours

WORLD

* Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych said he doubts ex-premier minister Yulia Tymoshenko's case of misusing state funds will reach court, but if it does, then it should be fair

* Russian President Dmitry Medvedev told his French counterpart Nicolas Sarkozy over the phone that France has won a tender to build amphibious assault ships for Russia

* Ukrainian opposition leader Yulia Tymoshenko is accused of spending 100 million euros ($131 million) from government reserves to buy cars that she later used in her presidential campaign, the Prosecutor General's Office said

* The Russian parliament is likely to delay the ratification of the New START treaty until January, a senior Russian lawmaker said

* A referendum on extending Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev's term of office until 2020 may take place in Kazakhstan in March 2011, the head of the Astana city council said

* NATO has had at best zero effect on the drugs trade in Afghanistan since its troops entered the country, and the problem remains far from a priority for the Western military alliance, Russia's top anti-narcotics official says

* The U.S. human rights organization Freedom House called on the European Union and the United States to renew full sanctions against Belarus

* Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and his U.S. counterpart Barack Obama discussed the American Senate's ratification of the new arms reduction treaty between the two countries

RUSSIA

* Discussions on ratifying the new Russian-U.S. strategic arms reduction treaty (START) have divided Russian deputies into two opposing camps

* The upper house of the Russian parliament approved a bill allowing the release of seriously ill suspects from pretrial detention, following a series of highly-publicized pretrial prison deaths in Moscow

* Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin called on the country's small- and middle-sized businesses to enter state commissions designed to tackle administrative bureaucracy

* A Siberian human rights activist has been committed to a psychiatric hospital for a 30-day examination, in an echo of Soviet-era practices, a colleague said

RUSSIAN PRESIDENT DMITRY MEDVEDEV'S LIVE TELEVISION INTERVIEW

- * Russian state-run TV channels should reflect real events without concealing undesirable issues, President Dmitry Medvedev said in a live interview with three of Russia's leading TV channel general managers

- * Russian President Dmitry Medvedev blamed former Moscow Mayor Yury Luzhkov for presiding over massive corruption and negligence of his duties which led to the ignominious end of his political career

- * Russia has politicians with good potential, including some opposition leaders, who could become presidents and prime ministers in the future, President Dmitry Medvedev said

- * Documents released by the WikiLeaks website that exposed U.S. diplomats' dim view of Russia have no bearing on U.S.-Russian relations, President Dmitry Medvedev said

- * Russia's federal power structures have already been cleared of criminals, but purges are needed in the regions, where lots of unexposed criminals remain, President Dmitry Medvedev said

- * Russian President Dmitry Medvedev reiterated his longstanding view that there is no need to return to direct elections of regional governors in Russia, which were abolished in 2004

- * Russian television channels should independently decide their priorities in editorial policy, President Medvedev said

- * Russian President Dmitry Medvedev denied that former Yukos CEO Mikhail Khodorkovsky was a victim of double standards in being jailed while other oligarchs are not prosecuted

- * Russian President Dmitry Medvedev urged a "systematic" approach to dealing with riots and street violence in Russia

- * Russia needs "drive" in order to develop with stability, President Medvedev said

- * Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said he believed that Russia is moving "straight towards democracy" and called on the opposition to take a more active part in the political process.

- * Russia's successful exit from the economic crisis, increased security from arms treaties with the USA and concern for the future of the younger generation as the main themes of the year for the nation, President Dmitry Medvedev said

BUSINESS

* The Russian Economic Development Ministry will present a new methodology to calculate export duties on commodities depending on exchange prices in January-February, Deputy Economic Development Minister Andrei Slepnev said

* Russia's gas giant Gazprom will cut prices for Estonia, Latvia in 2011 by 15% if gas deliveries there are increased to pre-crisis levels, Deputy Chairman of the Management Committee Valery Golubev said

* The world's top aluminum producer RusAl is using "greenmail" to get a higher price for its stake in Russia's largest nickel miner Norilsk Nickel by requesting an emergency shareholders' meeting, Norilsk Nickel said