Main News of November 10

A roundup of what has happened in the past 24 hours

RUSSIA

* The withdrawal of US forces from Afghanistan will reduce drug trafficking to Russia, Viktor Ivanov, the head of the Federal Drug Control Service, said

* A Moscow court sanctioned the arrest of Roman Panov, prime minister of Russia’s Perm Territory and a former deputy Russian regional development minister, suspected of the embezzlement of funds earmarked for the APEC 2012 Summit

* State Duma Speaker Sergei Naryshkin announced that he plans to join the ruling United Russia party

* The first oil tanker docked at the newly completed second pier in the port of Kozmino, the terminus of the Eastern Siberia-Pacific Ocean Pipeline (ESPO)

WORLD

* The US Department of Justice has refused to transfer convicted Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout to Russia for him to serve his prison time at home, Bout’s attorney Albert Dayan said

* Iraq’s acting Defense Minister Sadun Al-Dulaymi has denied reports that Bagdad is annulling a $4.2 billion arms deal with Russia over concerns about possible corruption, Al-Jazeera reported

* The head of the Russian Orthodox Church, Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia, praised Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas for his efforts to bring peace to the Middle East

* The opposition Syrian National Council (SNC) has elected George Sabra, a Christian former Communist, as its leader following talks in Qatar, world media reported

* The United Nations has started discussing a Russia-submitted General Assembly draft resolution on the unacceptability of glorifying Nazism, but the measure faces opposition from some countries, a source in the Russian delegation said

* In his first public comments since winning re-election three days ago, US President Barack Obama made it clear that his top priority is to address America’s ongoing economic problems, inviting lawmakers to find a compromise that would avoid the impending budget cuts known as the “fiscal cliff"

* The director of the United States Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), Gen. David Petraeus, resigned, citing an extramarital affair