Main News of August 22

A roundup of what has happened in the past 24 hours

RUSSIA

 

* A Bank of Russia official denied rumors that the ruble is weakening, claiming it is a strong and stable currency.

* The Russian space industry is plagued by such a great number of problems that the government cannot afford to leave it to its own devices, Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin said.

* A Moscow court rejected a motion launched by opposition activist Alexei Navalny to verify the paperwork permitting his rival for Moscow mayor – the incumbent, Sergei Sobyanin – to run again for the office.

* The Russian Interior Ministry said that about 1,000 violations of migration law have been discovered over the past 24 hours as a result of police raids on markets across Russia.

* The Russian government will allocate about 36 billion rubles ($1.12 billion) for the development of the civilian helicopter manufacturing industry up to 2020, President Vladimir Putin said.

* A Russian company is to build a $100 million helicopter airport in Moscow Region that will become the largest in Europe, a real estate company said.

* Earthquake hazard notwithstanding, Chechnya’s leader Ramzan Kadyrov has approved construction of an 80-story, 400-meter (1,320 feet) “vertical city” in the Russian North Caucasus republic’s capital Grozny, his government said.

 

WORLD

 

* Reports alleging the use of chemical weapons in Syria may be aimed at disrupting the preparation of an international conference on Syria in Geneva, a Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman said.

* Egypt’s deposed president, Hosni Mubarak, was released from custody and moved by helicopter to a military hospital in Cairo, Egyptian media reports said, citing the country’s Interior Ministry.

* Bradley Manning, the US Army private sentenced this week to 35 years in prison for leaking hundreds of thousands of classified military documents, said he is a female, Chelsea Manning, and wants to be called by the new name.

* Convicted Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout on Thursday asked a US federal appeals court to overturn his conviction on charges of conspiring to kill Americans in a case he calls politically motivated.

* Japan's nuclear watchdog said a leak of highly radioactive water at the crippled Fukushima nuclear power plant could be the beginning of a new disaster — a series of leaks of contaminated water from storage tanks.

* A court in South Korea acquitted of espionage charges a Chinese national who had posed as a North Korean defector, Yonhap news agency reported.

 

SPACE

 

*Two cosmonauts completed an almost six-hour spacewalk outside the International Space Station and unfurled the Russian flag in space.

* A converted Russian intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) put South Korea’s Kompsat-5 satellite into orbit under the Dnepr satellite-launch program, a spokesman for Russia’s Strategic Missile Forces (RVSN) said.

 

DEFENSE

 

* Russia denied that two Tupolev Tu-95 bombers violated Japanese airspace when carrying out routine flights earlier that day near Okinoshima Island, off the southeast coast of Japan.

* Russia's Defense Ministry said it was “surprised” by media reports claiming it was planning to take control of the Emergencies Ministry.

* Russia’s fifth-generation T-50 and Sukhoi Su-35S multirole fighter jets will perform stunning aerobatics at Moscow’s MAKS International Aviation and Space show, their maker Sukhoi said.

* An Indian military delegation has arrived in St. Petersburg to discuss military-technical collaboration in submarine-building, days after a Russian-made sub in India’s navy exploded, a Russian defense industry source said.

 

SPORTS

 

* Russian football coach Fabio Capello has drafted two newcomers into a provisional Russia squad for crucial World Cup qualifiers next month against Luxembourg and Israel.