Main News of October 25

A roundup of what has happened in the past 24 hours

WORLD

* The Georgian parliament approved the new cabinet headed by Bidzina Ivanishvili, leader of the Georgian Dream coalition that won in the country's October 1 parliamentary elections

* The Syrian military command announced it would cease military operations across the country during the Eid al-Adha holiday, which begins on Thursday and continues through the weekend

* Palestinian Hamas and Israel reached a ceasefire agreement after three days of violence in and around the Gaza Strip, a Palestinian official said

RUSSIA

* Officers of the Russian Investigative Committee’s Main Military Investigation Directorate have seized documents in the Defense Ministry’s property department and questioned its officials, the directorate said

* Education officials in South Russia’s Krasnodar Territory banned Halloween celebrations at local schools, Kommersant-Online reported

* Russia accused the United States of hypocrisy as a row grew over allegations that a political activist opposed to the rule of President Vladimir Putin had been abducted and tortured into confessing to a plot to spark mass disorder

* Russia should improve its legislation concerning totalitarian sects and toughen control over such groups, Russian President Vladimir Putin said

DEFENSE

* The United States does not supply Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s opponents with man-portable air defense systems (MANPADS) but provides coordination and logistics support to such supplies, the Russian Foreign Ministry said

SCIENCE

* A Russian Soyuz TMA-06M spaceship with the new crew of the International Space Station (ISS), which took off from Baikonur Cosmodrome on Tuesday, docked with the station successfully on Thursday, Russia's Flight Control Center (TsUP) said

CRIME

* Police have detained nine citizens of Nigeria and Cameroon suspected of using the names of major Russian state companies to steal at least 900 million rubles ($28.8 million) from several hundred foreign firms, the Russian Interior Ministry reported