Main news of November 27

A roundup of what has happened in the past 24 hours

RUSSIA

* The pro-Kremlin United Russia party officially named its leader Vladimir Putin, Russia's powerful prime minister, as its candidate for the March 2012 presidential elections. Our correspondent Maria Kuchma reports from Moscow's Luzhniki Arena

* Russia’s prime minister, Vladimir Putin, has warned Western powers against meddling in Russia’s forthcoming elections after agreeing to stand for president in March 2012

WORLD

* The Arab League has approved sanctions against Syria in the latest bid to dissuade the Assad regime from its continuing crackdown on dissent

* “You should not be in jail,” European Parliament President Jerzy Buzek wrote on Yulia Tymoshenko’s Facebook wall on Sunday as Ukraine’s ex-prime minister marked her 51st birthday

* Georgia’s breakaway South Ossetia region held a tightly contested presidential election run-ff on Sunday, after none of the candidates passed the 50-percent threshold needed for a first round victory

* One Russian sailor has died and five more are missing after a cargo carrier sunk off the coast of north Wales