Main News of December 3

A roundup of what has happened in the past 24 hours

WORLD

 

* Russian President Vladimir Putin reassured Turkey that Syria is too busy dealing with its internal conflict to plan any attack on its neighbors.

* Greece said it would spend up to 10 billion euros ($13 billion) to buy back its outstanding bonds at a steep discount, in a bid to cut debt and unlock much-needed bailout aid.

* NATO military experts have selected sites for the deployment of at least three Patriot air defense systems along Turkey's border with Syria, local media reported.

* Prince William and Kate Middleton, the Duchess of Cambridge, are expecting their first child, St James’s Palace said in a statement.

* Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych has accepted the resignation of Prime Minister Mykola Azarov and his cabinet, according to a presidential decree posted on the head of state’s website.

* Russia called on North Korea to abandon plans to launch a space rocket later this month, which Pyongyang announced on the weekend.

* Faced with lagging achievement and growing evidence that American school students aren’t keeping pace with kids in other industrialized nations, five US states announced their participation in a pilot project that will give thousands of students more time to learn, starting next year.

 

RUSSIA

 

* A group of Russian politicians have urged national TV networks to show restraint in broadcasting material suggesting the end of the world is nigh, a deputy from Russia's LDPR party said.

* The launch of Russia’s second Glonass-K satellite has been delayed until 2013, Defense Ministry spokesman Col. Alexey Zolotukhin said.

* Russian state-controlled energy giants Gazprom and Rosneft, and state-run savings bank Sberbank top the list of where Russians most want to work, according to a poll published by the VTsIOM pollster.

* Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) has opened a tender for the design and manufacture of special clothing and footwear for its Arctic frontier guards.

 

BUSINESS

 

* TMK, Russia's largest producer of steel pipes for the energy sector, has acquired a 55 percent stake in Oman’s Gulf International Pipe Industry L.L.C. (GIPI), the company said, without disclosing the sum of the deal.

* Russian grocery chain Dixy posted a third quarter IFRS net profit of $8.7 million in July-September 2012, up 7.2 percent on the same period last year, the company said.

 

SPORTS

 

* Russia has the strongest team on the biathlon World Cup tour after a successful start to the season, the head coach of the Russian women's team said.

* Two-time Tour de France winner Alberto Contador said he is staying calm over a license dispute that threatens to rule him out of cycling’s biggest race next year.