Main News of September 17

A roundup of what has happened in the past 24 hours

POLITICS

* The NATO-Russia Council has welcomed a US-Russian plan to get rid of Syrian chemical weapons, the NATO chief said

WORLD

* Americans’ distrust of Russia has increased over the past year, and their confidence in Syria is almost nonexistent, which means few Americans expect the deal hammered out by US and Russian diplomats to get Damascus to give up its chemical weapons will amount to much, a poll published this week shows

* The United States and Russia have signed a joint agreement to significantly expand cooperation on nuclear energy, research and security projects, building on a long-standing history of working on such areas together, energy leaders for the two countries said in statements this week

* The Swedish Embassy in Belarus said Tuesday that it was reopening more than a year after a Swedish company airdropped teddy bears with pro-democracy messages over the country, causing a diplomatic dispute

* Russians have been feeling increasingly negative toward the United States over the past few months, and they now view the Western superpower more pessimistically than at any other point in more than four years, a new state survey showed

* The White House said it had authorized the delivery of supplies and equipment to the Syrian opposition to assist them in defending against chemical weapons as the United States and Russia work on a plan to secure the chemical stockpile of Syrian President Bashar Assad’s government

RUSSIA

* Russia’s business ombudsman proposed that the country’s authorities should declare amnesty for illegal migrants to help both the foreign workers and their employers

* A new bill allowing for websites to be blocked if they contain any copyright-infringing content was introduced in the Russian parliament on Tuesday, expanding an earlier law against film piracy that was met with considerable public outcry

* Russia’s top diplomat called Tuesday for additional investigations into allegations of chemical weapons use in Syria, saying a UN report presented a day earlier had failed to answer certain questions and reiterating Moscow’s position that the attack was a “provocation” by opposition forces

* Russian opposition leader and former deputy prime minister Boris Nemtsov is under investigation for publicly inciting “extremist activity,” local prosecutors said

DEFENSE

* More than 20,000 of the Russian Interior Ministry’s internal troops have been put on alert in preparation for upcoming Russian-Belarusian drills, a senior ministry official said

CRIME

* Seven people suspected of stealing 500 million rubles ($15.5 million) in shares of Russian energy giant Gazprom have been detained, the Interior Ministry reported

SCIENCE

* Several dozen Russian scholars and their supporters protested against plans to reform the Russian Academy of Sciences in Moscow on Tuesday, as lawmakers met to discuss the proposed changes