Main News of August 27

A roundup of what has happened in the past 24 hours

WORLD

*French President Francois Hollande on Monday called on the Syrian opposition to establish a provisional government and said that France was ready to recognize it.

*Georgia may soon take a decision on granting refugee status to Adam Osmayev, one of the suspects in an alleged plot to assassinate Russian President Vladimir Putin, Osmayev’s lawyer Valery Kochetov said.

*Seventeen civilians were beheaded by Taliban insurgents in Afghanistan's southern Helmand province on Sunday for attending a party in defiance of the Islamist group, government officials said.

 

RUSSIA

*Sailors aboard the Arctic vessel Anna Akhmatova used water cannons to forcibly remove the Greenpeace activists who had chained themselves to the ship in protest against its supply of oil rig workers to the Arctic Prirazlomnaya drilling platform, the environmental organization reported.

*A storm warning was issued in Russia’s Maritime Territory as Typhoon Bolaven is approaching the region, the Emergencies Ministry said.

*Cranking up the absurdity factor in Russian politics to 11, the leader of Russia’s arguably most campy metal band said he will run for mayor of a Moscow region city.

 

DEFENSE

*Russian Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin repeated his appeal for Russia to develop a hypersonic aircraft for its PAK-DA long-range bomber requirement.

*A Russian IT company denied any involvement in a project to develop software to monitor social networks and influence public opinion for the country’s intelligence services.