Main News of November 23

A roundup of what has happened in the past 24 hours

WORLD

* The National Coalition of Syrian Revolutionary and Opposition Forces (SNCROF) will soon open its office in Istanbul, Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said.

* The Cypriot government and the trio of international lenders have come to an agreement on a much-needed bailout loan, the Cyprus News Agency (CNA) reported.

* Egypt’s democratic opposition took to the streets to protest President Mohamed Morsi’s new constitutional declaration, which gives him sweeping new powers that critics say amounts to a coup.

* The EU has offered Bulgaria, Slovakia and Lithuania additional funding to dismantle their nuclear power facilities, the Sofia News Agency reported.

* The UK High Court ruled that former BTA Bank chairman Mukhtar Ablyazov, who is on the run from authorities, must pay the bank $2.1 billion in compensation for damages in a fraud scheme.

RUSSIA

* Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev called on the government to pay special attention to the development of civil aviation in Russia and get moving on the issue of optimizing aircraft production.

* Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov reiterated Moscow’s concern over the possible deployment of US Patriot air defense systems in Turkey.

* One of the two jailed members of the Pussy Riot group, Maria Alyokhina, will be placed in solitary confinement for the next three months at her own request, a penal colony official said.

* Russia's ex-Defense Ministry official Yevgeniya Vasilyeva has been charged with large-scale fraud and placed under house arrest, Russia’s Investigative Committee spokesman said.

* Russia’s Interior Ministry has called on police in over 50 countries to join an operation it launched to combat child pornography on the internet.

* A new Orthodox political party, called Against All, was officially registered in Russia.

* A growing number of Russians consider the Russian Orthodox Church to be a necessary feature of their national identity, a recent public opinion poll showed.

* A man convicted of killing the head of a Russian Afghan War Veterans group in 1994 was sentenced in absentia by a Moscow city court to 14 years in a penal colony.

DEFENSE

* Six Pantsir-S short-range air defense systems were handed over to air defense units of Russia’s eastern military district, the head of air defense troops of Russia's Air Forces, Maj. Gen. Viktor Gumenny, said.

* The latest version of Russia's world-famous Kalashnikov assault rifle, the AK-12, has shown up a range of problems during initial testing, the head of the weapons-making agency responsible for trials of the new gun said.

*US and Japanese officials have agreed to move some exercises involving US Osprey transport aircraft from Okinawa to the Pacific island of Guam, the NHK public broadcaster reported.

* The Indian Army carried out a successful test of its Advanced Air Defense (AAD) anti-ballistic missile interceptor, IANS reported.

BUSINESS

* Russian steel giant MMK posted an IFRS net profit of $47 million for the first nine months of 2012, up from a loss of $58 million for the same period last year, the company said.

Azerbaijan is expected to start natural gas supplies to Ukraine in late 2017, the country’s ambassador to Ukraine Einulla Madatli said.

SPORT

* The Russian FA has manipulated the country’s league in favor of CSKA Moscow by handing Zenit St. Petersburg a defeat by default after a player was attacked, Zenit coach Luciano Spalletti said.

* Ottawa Senators defenseman Sergei Gonchar scored a goal and an assist as his lockout team Metallurg Magnitogorsk demolished Kazakhstan’s Barys Astana 5-1 in the KHL regular season.