Main News of April 24

A roundup of what has happened in the past 24 hours

WORLD

*Jailed Ukrainian ex-prime minister and opposition leader Yulia Tymoshenko has declared a hunger strike in what she said was designed to turn the world’s attention to the “concentration camp of violence and lawlessness” which she said was being created in Ukraine by President Viktor Yanukovych.

*Russia will not impose limitations on arms deliveries to Syria in addition to those established by the UN Security Council, Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin said.

*The United States is not preparing for a NATO-Russia Council meeting during a NATO summit on May 20-21.

*Workers will be forced to visit racecourses in Turkmenistan in anticipation of the nation's forthcoming Horse Racing Day, celebrated every last Sunday in April, Chronicles of Turkmenistan newspaper reported.

 

RUSSIA

*President-in-waiting Vladimir Putin said on Tuesday he would stand down as head of the ruling United Russia party and nominated outgoing President Dmitry Medvedev as its new leader.

*Russia's military leadership has for the first time acknowledged a nuclear threat from Iran and North Korea.

*Russia will draft a new concept for the development of its defense industry that reflects existing and potential threats to its national security by the end of 2012, Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin said.

*Oleg Shein, who stood as a candidate for mayor in the southern Russian city of Astrakhan on March 4, ended on Tuesday his 40-day hunger strike to protest alleged rigging of the mayoral elections.

 

BUSINESS

*Hungary's oil and gas firm MOL and other project participants have not confirmed their withdrawal from the Western-backed Nabucco gas pipeline project, European Commission energy spokesperson Marlene Holzner said.

*The Russian government’s plans to create a mega state corporation to develop Russia’s depressed eastern Siberia and the Far East will make the investment climate in the country worse, former Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin said.

*Russian citizens bought real estate worth $245 million in Australia last year, Australia's Foreign Investment Review Board said.