Main News of September 25

A roundup of what has happened in the past 24 hours

WORLD

*Time is running out for a diplomatic resolution to Iran’s nuclear ambitions, U.S. President Barack Obama told the United Nations General Assembly on Tuesday, warning that a nuclear-armed Tehran would threaten Israel’s existence, the security of the Persian Gulf nations, and global economic stability.

*The Ukrainian Prosecutor’s General Office has enough evidence to charge jailed former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko in the 1996 murder of prominent politician Yevhen Shcherban, First Deputy Prosecutor General Renat Kuzmin said.

*An independent team will be created in Georgia to investigate prison torture allegations, a Georgian minister said.

*Forty Taiwanese fishing vessels which had earlier sailed into Japanese waters around a group of disputed islands have since left, the Japanese coast guard reported according to TV channel NHK.

 

RUSSIA

*The Russian Foreign Ministry criticized the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe's Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (OSCE/ODIHR) over its preliminary conclusions on the parliamentary elections in Belarus last Sunday.

*Members of the State Duma have gone head-to-head in the battle over who should decide whether Russia will join the majority of the world in turning back its clocks this autumn.

*Russia’s largest diamond miner Alrosa discovered a unique diamond weighing 158.2 carats and worth over $1.5 million, the company said.

 

BUSINESS

*Russian grain prices have reached a post-Soviet high, rising by more than 1,000 rubles ($32.25) per ton in the past week alone, the Vedomosti daily reported.

*Russia’s annualized gross domestic product growth slowed to 2.8 percent in August from 3 percent in July, Deputy Economic Development Minister Andrei Klepach said.