Main News of October 26

A roundup of what has happened in the past 24 hours

WORLD

* Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich is locked in a standoff with a woman who is demanding $23 million for her Manhattan apartment in his reported bid to take over an entire historic mansion, according to the New York Post

* International gambling giant Caesars Entertainment withdrew from a proposed casino development project in Boston after investigators found links between the company and an alleged Russian mobster, a report submitted to the Massachusetts Gaming Commission says

* Two UN human rights investigators say US secrecy about its drone strikes is the biggest obstacle to determining the impact on civilians

* The president of Turkmenistan signed a decree to free over 1,000 people from prisons in a move dedicated to the 22nd anniversary of his country’s independence, local television reported

* A Greenpeace activist staged a protest in support of his colleagues currently jailed in Russia by dangling from the Eiffel Tower in a tent for several hours on Saturday, ending his show of encouragement only when firemen removed him from the site

* Russia’s foreign minister and the UN-Arab League special envoy to Syria discussed preparation for the Geneva-2 peace conference on Saturday, the Russian Foreign Ministry said

RUSSIA

* Leader of Chechnya Ramzan Kadyrov has accused Russian lawmaker Vladimir Zhirinovsky of “inciting hatred” in Russia after he called to “block off the Caucasus with barbed wire” during a TV program broadcast this week

* Russians must learn to perceive the decisions of courts and investigators as legitimate for the country to develop forward, Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev said in a televised interview

* Russia has nothing to fear from the fast-growing China, but could benefit from this cooperation, Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev said in a televised interview

* A US telecoms satellite, Sirius FM-6, was put into orbit on Saturday by Russia’s Proton-M rocket, a spokesman for the Russian space agency Roscosmos said

* Russia’s Federal Space Agency, Roscosmos, has announced a tender for construction of launch facilities for Soyuz-2 carrier rockets at the future Vostochny spaceport, being built in Russia’s Far East

* Masked men tied up an on-duty security guard at a Moscow vocational college and stole over 1.6 million rubles from an ATM on the premises, a spokesman for the city’s Interior Ministry press service said

* The president of the restive southern Russian republic of Dagestan called on local parents who have children studying at Islamic schools in the countries "troubled by terrorism" to bring them back home

* Five people, including three children, were killed in an accidental fire at a house in Russia’s southern Krasnodar region, the regional Emergencies Ministry said

* A Just Russia, a moderately left political party and part of Russia's so-called systemic opposition, opened its seventh party congress in Moscow on Saturday to reshuffle party leadership and discuss its political direction

* An Antonov An-2 biplane crashed in East Siberia on Saturday, killing two people, Russia’s Emergency Situations Ministry has said

* Police in Russia’s turbulent republic of Dagestan have found a large bomb-making workshop apparently run by gunmen, the Interior Ministry said

SPORT

* World No. 80 Alex Bogomolov Jr. beat South Africa’s Jacob Coenraad De Klerk in four sets to give Russia a 2-0 lead in their Davis Cup relegation playoff

* World No. 21 Mikhail Youzhny reached the final of the Valencia Open on Saturday with a straight-sets win over Dmitry Tursunov