Main news of November 9

A roundup of what has happened in the past 24 hours

WORLD

*George Papandreou announced he is stepping down as Greek prime minister to clear the way for a new coalition government.

*Moscow lashed out at the IAEA’s latest report on Iran, saying it undermines the international effort to defuse tensions around the Islamic republic’s nuclear program and holds it guilty without cause.

*NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen noted Georgia’s progress toward integration with the alliance and called for a continuation of reforms.

*The Arab League's ministerial meeting in Cairo on Saturday may approve "fresh harsh measures" against Syria, Egypt's Al Ahram newspaper said.

*The sentencing of a Russian pilot to eight and a half years in jail in Tajikistan for smuggling a jet engine and violating border laws raises questions, President Dmitry Medvedev said.

*Russia and Georgia signed a Swiss-brokered agreement that clears the way to Moscow’s accession to the World Trade Organization (WTO).

 

RUSSIA

*Moscow demands that Washington ensure humane treatment for convicted Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout, the Russian Foreign Ministry said.

*Twenty years after the fall of the Soviet Union, Russia is at a major strategic crossroads and the choices its leaders make in the next few years will determine what kind of state it will be in for generations to come, political analysts said this week.

*A museum dedicated to the creator of the Faberge eggs will open in St. Petersburg's Hermitage Museum as part of festivities marking the 250th anniversary of the Hermitage in 2014, museum director Mikhail Piotrovsky said.

*A district court in Moscow on Wednesday rejected a defamation lawsuit by ex-Moscow mayor Yury Luzhkov against Vladimir Zhirinovsky, the outspoken leader of Russia's ultra-nationalist Liberal Democratic Party (LDPR).