Main News of February 9

A roundup of what has happened in the past 24 hours

WORLD

* South Ossetian opposition leader Alla Dzhioyeva was hospitalized after law enforcers tried to take her into custody for questioning, the former Georgian republic’s deputy prosecutor general, Georgy Kabulov, said

* Greek political leaders have finally struck a deal on new austerity measures demanded by creditors to secure a 130-billion euro bailout to avoid default and keep the country afloat, local media reported

* Moscow does not consider the U.S-backed Friends of Syria Group legitimate, Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman Alexander Lukashevich said

RUSSIA

* The new opposition event could see 34,000 lining up around the Garden Ring in downtown Moscow to “encircle the Kremlin” on February 26, organizers said on Facebook

* Russian Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin urged an upgrade of the country’s defense industry during his working visit to Siberia where he met with scientists and students

* Russia’s Defense Ministry said the country will do its best to avoid military intervention in Syria

* Russian diplomats should resort to more effective measures in protecting the interests of their compatriots in complex situations abroad, President Dmitry Medvedev said

BUSINESS

* Prime Minister Vladimir Putin set out his agenda for the future of Russian business at a meeting with entrepreneurs, promising less regulation and taxes and asking business to help plan its future

* The issue of the legitimacy of privatization in the 1990s in Russia should be closed, and a mechanism for doing that should be devised, Prime Minister and presidential candidate Vladimir Putin said at a business lobby group congress

* U.S. Riviera Travel & Tours filed a nearly $3.5 billion suit in District Court Central District of California against Russian flagship airline Aeroflot accusing it of extortion, RAPSI legal news agency reported