Main News of August 16

A roundup of what has happened in the past 24 hours

WORLD

* At least 60 people were killed in Egypt on Friday in clashes between supporters of ousted President Mohammed Morsi and security forces, adding to a death toll that has already exceeded 600, media reports said

* Ukrainian protestors burned Russian-made goods outside the embassy in Kiev on Friday in a rally against what a prominent Ukrainian trade federation has called the Russian Customs Service’s “blocking” of imports from Ukraine, local media reported

RUSSIA

* A court in Grozny, capital of the Russian North Caucasus republic of Chechnya, has found a worker guilty of causing a fire in a local skyscraper four months ago and fined him, the Prosecutor General’s Office reported

* Russia has signed an agreement with the state-run China Development Bank in a bid to attract financing for large infrastructure projects in the Far East and southern Siberia, Russia’s Far East Development Ministry said in a statement

* Debt laden Russian steel and coking coal giant Mechel is looking to sell its only asset in the United States, the company confirmed

* Russia has welcomed an agreement reached between the United Nations and Damascus on sending inspectors to investigate alleged chemical weapons use in Syria, a Foreign Ministry spokesman said

* Nearly 28,500 people have been affected by floods in three regions in Russia’s Far East following heavy rains, an Emergencies Ministry spokesman said

POLITICS

* Russian regions, most of which heavily rely on federal subsidies to survive, are funded in part based on how strongly they support the ruling United Russia party at elections, a new study claimed

DEFENSE

* Newly declassified Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) documents finally acknowledge that Area 51 did indeed exist and reveal that it was used as a base to test U-2 and other spy planes

* Russia and China have strong military ties, as exemplified by a recent series of joint exercises in the Ural Mountains, Russian President Vladimir Putin said

BUSINESS

* Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Ukrainian counterpart Viktor Yanukovych on Friday discussed the “customs processing” in a telephone conversation, the Kremlin said