Main News of November 24

A roundup of what has happened in the past 24 hours

WORLD

* Mexican President-elect Enrique Pena Nieto is likely to visit Russia shortly after he takes office on December 1, an official from Nieto’s team said

* Pakistan will suspend mobile phone networks in big cities to prevent attacks against Shia Muslims during key commemorations this weekend, British media reported

* British code-breakers were stumped by a secret Second World War message that was recently found attached to the leg of a dead pigeon, British satellite news broadcaster Sky News reported

* Iran's President Mahmud Ahmadinejad phoned Gaza's Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh to congratulate him on a “great victory” over Israel

* Eleven people were wounded in clashes between demonstrators and police in Bangkok, according to Thai media reports

* At least 61 people have been injured at a mass opposition rally in downtown Bangkok, local authorities said

* Seven people were killed in Pakistan and at least 18 others injured when a bomb exploded near a Shiite procession in the Peshawar region, Pakistani media reported

* Police in Greece announced the arrest of three people involved in a high-profile robbery at the Archaeological Museum of Olympia, a RIA Novosti correspondent reported from Athens

* Eighteen miners were killed and five more trapped underground when a mine collapsed in southern China, the Xinhua news agency reported

* Miss Czech Republic Tereza Fajksova has won the Miss Earth 2012 beauty pageant, which was held in Manila, Philippines, on Saturday.

RUSSIA

* Russian military inspectors will begin a survey flight this week above the United States under the international Open Skies Treaty, Russia’s Defense Ministry has said

* Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev has suggested raising fines for drivers running a red light, crossing into the oncoming lane of traffic or speeding up to 500,000 rubles (about $16,000) in Moscow and St. Petersburg

* Members of the Opposition Coordination Council have announced their decision to hold a new protest action, the Freedom March, in Moscow on December 15

* Russian warships will be on standby in the eastern Mediterranean in case of need to assist Russians leaving Gaza, a source in the Navy's high command said

*A thief hid behind a false ceiling at an electronics store in Russia’s Far East but was detained by police, the Russian Interior Ministry’s regional department reported

* Local police in Russia's North Caucasian republic of Dagestan discovered an illegal oil factory holding about 1.6 tons of oil worth more than 20 million rubles (about $650,000), the local Interior Ministry said

* Physicist and convicted spy Valentin Danilov walked to freedom after serving eight years in prison and pledged he would continue studying science

* The new chairman of big-spending Russian side Anzhi Makhachkala has made a "strategic" priority out of bringing European football to insurgency-plagued Dagestan

 

SPORT

* Russia's sports minister insists the country's World Cup 2018 plans won't be blown off track by a controversial flare-throwing incident that has shaken Russian football to the core

* Zenit St. Petersburg are mulling their withdrawal from the Russian Premier League to create a regional competition involving teams from across the former Soviet Union, the CEO of team sponsor Gazprom said

* Track stars Usain Bolt and Allyson Felix were named world athletes of the year by the IAAF

* Nigerian forward Viktor Obinna's power free kick gave Lokomotiv Moscow a 3-2 victory over FC Krasnodar in the Russian Premier League 

* Puerto Rican boxer Hector Camacho has died of gunshot wounds after being taken off life support, local newspaper El Nuevo Dia reported

* Russia's Vladimir Morozov stormed to gold in the 100 meters freestyle  at the European short course swimming championships