Main news of September 24

A roundup of what has happened in the past 24 hours

RUSSIA

* Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has proposed Prime Minister Vladimir Putin to run for president in next year’s election, ending speculation over which man would run for the post

* Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and his Ukrainian counterpart Viktor Yanukovych held an informal meeting to discuss ways to settle the long-running deadlock over contracted terms for Russian gas sold to Ukraine

* The Russian Communist Party (KPRF) approved a list of candidates to contest the December 4 parliamentary elections

* A Just Russia, center-left party in the Russian lower house of parliament, has put its leader Sergei Mironov on top of the elections list in the forthcoming parliamentary poll

WORLD

*A court in New York sentenced on Friday a graduate Saudi Arabian student to 15 years in prison for murdering a U.S. professor, HuffingtonPost.com reported

* The Quartet of Middle East mediators has released a statement urging Israelis and Palestinians to return to direct talks within one month

* The United States will continue to build on the progress of the reset of the relations with Russia regardless of who becomes the next Russian president, the White House said

* Abandoned 6-ton Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite (UARS) satellite entered the earth's atmosphere early and crashed in the North Pacific Ocean, the Californian Joint Space Operations Center said

* Global arms sales dropped sharply last year as the world's governments struggled in the economic downturn, according to a new study

SPORTS

* Russian national women volleyball team began the 2011 European Championship, running in Italy and Serbia between September 23 and October 2, with a victory.