Main News of September 5

A roundup of what has happened in the past 24 hours

WORLD

* The first day of the G20 summit, traditionally a platform for economic debate, was dominated by the Syrian crisis, with Russian President and summit host Vladimir Putin proposing that world leaders discuss over dinner the United States’ call for a military strike against the Syrian regime

* A top US lawmaker has declined a Russian request for a meeting between US and Russian lawmakers to discuss how to address the burgeoning crisis in Syria, a spokesman said

* The European Union’s two most senior officials called for a political solution to the ongoing conflict in Syria as world leaders gathered in St. Petersburg for a G20 Summit that is expected to be dominated by US calls for the use of force against the Syrian regime

* US Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel said that Russia was a supplier of chemical weapons to the Syrian military, but the Pentagon quickly backed off the claim and said Hagel was referring to conventional weapons

* British Prime Minister David Cameron says British scientists have found new evidence that poison gas was used last month in a suburb outside the Syrian capital of Damascus

* A round of ammunition used near the largest Syrian city of Aleppo in a purported chemical weapons attack in March was not a factory-made item of the Syrian armed forces, the Russian Foreign Ministry said

* Iranian President Hassan Rouhani transferred the authority to conduct nuclear talks from the country’s security council to the Foreign Ministry, the presidential office said in a statement

* Russian President Vladimir Putin’s assertion that US Secretary of State John Kerry “lied” about the influence of al-Qaida in Syria is “preposterous” and a mischaracterization of what America’s top diplomat actually said, the US State Department said

* Russian President Vladimir Putin, an avid judoist, agreed with Japan’s prime minister that a post-World War II peace deal between the two states could finally be reached only under the judo principle of hikiwake – “no winner, no loser”

RUSSIA

* Russia has strengthened its naval presence in the Mediterranean Sea for a possible evacuation of Russian nationals from Syria, the Kremlin chief of staff said

* Russia has handed over an official request to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to analyze potential nuclear risks of a US airstrike on Syria, a Russian diplomat said

* Russian and Chinese state corporations signed a string of economic agreements including another document paving the way for the long-awaited multi-billion dollar gas deal, after President Vladimir Putin and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping met at the G20 summit in the city of St. Petersburg

* A bill that proposes stripping gays with children of their parental rights was introduced in the lower house of the Russian parliament by a lawmaker from the ruling party

* Russia’s nuclear giant Rosatom signed two deals that could help smooth its path to entering the UK’s market for new-build nuclear power plants