Main News of November 12

A roundup of what has happened in the past 24 hours

WORLD

* Egypt’s foreign minister said ahead of a Russian delegation's visit that Cairo is considering deliveries of Russian arms

* Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a number of key cooperation agreements with Vietnam during a state visit to Hanoi that is expected to significantly boost relations between the two nations

* Ukrainian state gas company Naftogaz has no plans to resume gas imports from Russia’s energy giant Gazprom before the end of the year, a Ukrainian daily newspaper reported

* Russia has sent two planes carrying medical aid to the Philippines as the world acts to help the typhoon-ravaged Southeast Asian nation

* Russia has said Iran was not to blame for the failed outcome of nuclear talks in Geneva last week, hinting at cracks in what had previously appeared to be a relatively united international front on the issue

* The US ambassador to Turkmenistan said that the Central Asian nation will launch its first ever telecommunication satellite on a private, US-made SpaceX craft in late 2014

 

RUSSIA

* Thirty activists and journalists detained by Russian authorities aboard a Greenpeace icebreaker were relocated to detention centers in St. Petersburg, after spending more than six weeks imprisoned in the Arctic city of Murmansk

* A court in Moscow ordered the seizure of bank accounts and assets belonging to opposition leader Alexei Navalny as part of an ongoing embezzlement case against him

* Russian defense officials said that two people were killed at the Plesetsk space launch facility last week while carrying out routine work cleaning out a propellant tank

* The weather in Moscow this November has been the hottest in recorded history, with average temperatures for the month’s first 10 days a full seven degrees Celsius higher than normal, meteorologists said

 

SPORTS

* Russian youngster Daniil Kvyat has been cleared to drive for his new Formula One team Toro Rosso after getting the required FIA super license, the team said

* After a spate of snuffed-out torches, there is no chance of the Olympic flame going out during competition at next year’s Winter Games in Sochi, a Russian minister said