Main news of October 31

A roundup of what has happened in the past 24 hours

WORLD

*The United States has cut off funding of UNESCO after the UN body supported Palestine's accession bid

*Israel refused to accept UNESCO’s decision to grant full membership to the Palestinian National Autonomy (PNA) and threatened retaliatory measures

*Tehran has demanded that Washington officially apologize for accusing Iran’s intelligence service of plotting to assassinate Saudi Arabia’s ambassador to the United States

*Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou pledged on Monday to hold a referendum on whether Greece will accept the new aid package proposed by the EU in return for continued austerity measures in Greece.

*The Canadian Parliament is considering a bill to make the so-called Magnitsky List, which blacklists persons allegedly linked to the death of Russian lawyer Sergei Magnitsky from entering Canada, the Parliament said on its website.

 

RUSSIA

*Russian oligarch Roman Abramovich denied on Monday that a deal he reached with tycoon Boris Berezovsky back in 1995 envisaged a 50 percent division of shares in oil company Sibneft

*All of the political parties taking part in elections to the Russian State Duma on December 4 will receive television air time, for the first time in recent years, a deputy chief of a state-run broadcaster said on Monday.

*A court in the Chelyabinsk region on Monday ordered payment of three million rubles ($101,200) to two families each, whose children were accidentally switched at birth 12 years ago.

*Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov lashed out at the West for “double standards” in the way it treats public protests in Russia and at home.

*As Western youths flock to Halloween parties dressed as ghosts, zombies and witches, opinion polls show most Russians will ignore the event, with only a few people planning to celebrate a holiday many Russian officials and religious authorities claim is “Satanic."