Main News of August 24

A roundup of what has happened in the past 24 hours

RUSSIA

Russia’s Emergencies Ministry has placed flood barriers in the city of Khabarovsk in the country’s Far East under round-the-clock watch to help monitor water levels and identify breaches as soon as they happen, a local branch of the ministry said Saturday in a statement.

Hundreds of people turned out in downtown Moscow on Saturday to protest against planned changes to the Russian Academy of Sciences, local media report.

The head of Russia's top oil producer Rosneft, Igor Sechin, has bought 0.0075 percent of the company’s stock for the first time since becoming Rosneft chairman in 2004, the state-controlled oil major said in a statement.

Rehearsals for Russia’s MAKS-2013 airshow which were scheduled for Saturday have been postponed until Sunday due to bad weather, organizers said Saturday.

Russia’s Defense Ministry is not abandoning the purchase of MiG-35 fighter jets and could sign a deal next week, Trade and Industry Minister Denis Manturov said Saturday.

Russia’s Almaz-Antei corporation will showcase for the first time its newest S-350E Vityaz mid-range air defense system at the upcoming MAKS-2013 air show near Moscow, the company said.

Various modifications of a new Kalashnikov AK-12 assault rifle as well as other small arms developed as part of Russia’s “future soldier” gear will pass state acceptance trials in the fall of 2013, a spokesperson for the Kalashnikov corporation said.

A Russian military delegation has left for the United States Saturday to take part in a US-Canadian-Russian air-defense exercise, the Russian Defense Ministry said.

WORLD

An international medical charity working with hospitals in the Syrian capital on Saturday issued a statement saying that thousands of people were hospitalized in Damascus in less than three hours on August 21 with “neurotoxic symptoms.”

A Greenpeace ship that Russia prohibited from entering the Northern Sea Route has ignored the ban to protest state oil company Rosneft’s operations in the Arctic, the environmental group said Saturday.

Lewis Hamilton snagged his fourth pole position in a row on Saturday by battling to the top of the timesheets in qualifying for the Belgian Grand Prix.

Police in Lithuania are chasing an armed robber who stole a police car and was last seen heading in the direction of the Russian border, local media reported Saturday.

A Canadian couple has been charged with animal cruelty following the discovery of 40 ball pythons in a motel room last week, The Canadian Press reported.