Main News of February 24

A roundup of what has happened in the past 24 hours.

WORLD

* Russia will not give up its nuclear weapons until it develops conventional weapons with comparable effect, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said

* Moscow is ready to cooperate on Syria with its partners from the UN, the EU, the Arab League and the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, the Russian Foreign Ministry said

* Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas has met Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Hamiyeh in Cairo for the first time in more than four years, the Palestinian Maan news agency reported

RUSSIA

* Russia will not take any unilateral steps on nuclear disarmament, because any moves toward disarmament need to be general and comprehensive, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said

* The West is using a nonproliferation campaign as a blind for bringing about regime change in Iran, Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said

* Officers of the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) will have to get rid of any real estate they own outside Russia before December 1, 2012, the Rossiyskaya Gazeta daily reported on Friday, citing the head of the FSB Alexander Bortnikov

BUSINESS

* Russia will export 10 Sukhoi Superjet 100 airplanes in 2012, United Aircraft Corporation CEO Mikhail Pogosyan said

* Russia’s Sukhoi aircraft maker will remain among the top three exporters of fighter jets until at least 2015, the Moscow based Center for Analysis of World Arms Trade (CAWAT) said

* One of Russia's largest Internet firms, the Mail.ru Group, saw 2011 net profits skyrocket 160 percent to $207.6 million to IFRS, compared with 2010, the company said

SPORTS

* Eastern Europe’s KHL hockey league will challenge the NHL as the world's preeminent competition, Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said