Main News of October 10

A roundup of what has happened in the past 24 hours

WORLD

* The Obama administration’s “unprecedented secrecy and unprecedented attacks on a free press” have cast a chill over journalism in the United States and are damaging the US position when it advocates for international press freedoms, a report by the nonprofit Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) released Thursday says

* US intelligence leaker Edward Snowden has met with former US security officials who now campaign against what they call the misuse of state secrecy, WikiLeaks said

* International observers have criticized “serious” and “overwhelming” violations during Wednesday presidential elections in oil-rich Azerbaijan that resulted in a landslide win for autocratic incumbent Ilham Aliyev

* Ukrainian world heavyweight boxing champion Wladimir Klitschko is engaged to marry US actress Hayden Panettiere, the actress announced on US television

RUSSIA

* The Russian state has no ownership records for almost 40 percent of the country’s real estate ahead of a property tax increase due to start next year, a newspaper reported Thursday, citing official data

* Russia has sent a list of its chemical weapons experts to the head of the international team working to rid Syria of chemical weapons production capability and stockpiles, Russia’s Foreign Ministry said

* Former Deputy Defense Minister Oleg Ostapenko will head up Russia’s Federal Space Agency, Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev said Thursday. The move comes as part of a major reshuffle of the country’s troubled space industry

* A Russian human rights activist from the Memorial rights organization has received the 2013 Stieg Larsson prize, Memorial said

* Russia's Constitutional Court ruled Thursday to overturn a provision barring people convicted of major crimes from running for public office in a move that could open the way for opposition leader and recent Moscow mayoral candidate Alexei Navalny to participate in future elections

* Seven judges at a top Russian court have resigned ahead of looming major reforms to the country's justice system

* The father of US intelligence leaker Edward Snowden says he believes Russia, where he arrived on Thursday with the aim of meeting with his son, is the only country in which his fugitive son can feel safe

DEFENSE

* A Ukrainian frigate has joined NATO’s counter-piracy operation Ocean Shield in the Gulf of Aden, NATO’s Secretary General said

* Russia’s nascent small-arms holding Kalashnikov Concern is in negotiations with Italy's Beretta on the establishment of joint ventures in Russia, a senior government official said

BUSINESS

* Ukraine may stop all natural gas imports from Russia within the next few years if the current gas contract is not reviewed, Prime Minister Mykola Azarov said

CRIME

* Two suspected purse-snatchers, believed to have robbed champion gymnast-turned-parliamentarian Svetlana Khorkina and several other women, have been detained in western Moscow, police said