Main News of September 25

A roundup of what has happened in the past 24 hours

WORLD

* US Secretary of State John Kerry signed the international Arms Trade Treaty (ATT) at the United Nations Wednesday, which regulates the global arms trade and is aimed at preventing conventional weapons from reaching human rights violators or conflict zones – but the measure is facing strong opposition on Capitol Hill where it has to be ratified by the US Senate

* Former President Bill Clinton offered some rare words of praise from a US politician about Vladimir Putin, describing the Russian president as “very smart,” “brutally blunt” and true to his word

RUSSIA

* The upper house of Russia’s parliament approved a contentious reform of the country’s Academy of Sciences on Wednesday, as some 200 protesters gathered outside the legislature’s building in downtown Moscow

* It would not be a catastrophe for Russia if Ukraine signs an association agreement with the European Union, but it would reduce the scale of economic cooperation between Moscow and Kiev, Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev said

* Russian prosecutors said Wednesday that more than 3 billion rubles ($100 million) in forestry violations, including the unlawful felling of trees to build a road, had been identified on military property and that the relevant legal action was under way

* The defense counsel for the CEO of Russian fertilizer giant Uralkali who was arrested in Belarus in August is pushing for a meeting with senior Belarusian prosecutors, a defense lawyer said

BUSINESS

* The World Bank cut its 2013 growth forecast for the Russian economy in a new report published Wednesday, asserting that domestic consumers had followed investors in “sitting on the fence” over the economy and warning that structural reforms would be necessary to stimulate new growth

* A Russian-built aircraft carrier is to be handed over to the Indian Navy on November 15, and will reach India by February 2014, a senior official at the Russian arms exports monopoly said