Main News of September 12

A roundup of what has happened in the past 24 hours

WORLD

* The commander of the opposition Free Syrian Army called Russia’s proposal to get Syria to surrender its chemical weapons stocks “a lie” and said his troops are still waiting for long-promised US arms, dismissing reports that the United States has begun delivering weapons to the Syrian opposition

* Syrian President Bashar Assad said that his government would put its chemical weapons under international supervision within a month after it signs the UN Chemical Weapons Convention, but only if the United States stops its “policy of threats”

* Syria is ready to follow the international convention banning chemical weapons, Damascus said in letter to UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon

* Damascus’ decision to join the Chemical Weapons Convention makes the planned US military strike on Syria redundant, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said

RUSSIA

* A potential US strike on Syria is fraught with dangerous consequences, Russian President Vladimir Putin has warned in an op-ed he wrote for the New York Times

* Election officials in Russia’s fourth-largest city confirmed the election of a controversial anti-drug crusader and opposition leader in one of the most unexpected mayoral races in Russia’s recent history

* A Moscow court declined to annul the inauguration of Moscow mayor Sergei Sobyanin, effectively throwing out opposition leader and rival candidate Alexei Navalny’s bid to overturn the results of last weekend's elections that he and his supporters claim were marred by widespread violations in favor of the Kremlin-backed incumbent, RAPSI legal news agency reported

* The first launch of a Russian Proton carrier rocket after an accident in July has been postponed indefinitely due to a glitch in its first stage, International Launch Services Inc. (ILS)

* Russia hosts the world’s largest population of immigrants after the United States, according to a new UN study showing that the number of people living abroad across the globe has reached a record high

* The Russian Football Association formally declared it would propose St. Petersburg as a host city for the 13-nation Euro 2020 football tournament