Main News of November 21

A roundup of what has happened in the past 24 hours

WORLD

* Ukraine’s government decided to call off the planned signing of landmark agreements with the EU that could have weakened the former Soviet nation’s bonds with Russia

* US and Afghan officials have agreed on the final language of a bilateral security pact determining the size of US forces in Afghanistan after 2014, US Secretary of State John Kerry said

RUSSIA

* Russia’s largest lender said it would step in to help with card payments after financial regulators revoked the license of a major bank, causing widespread problems for customers

* Prosecutors in Belarus said that they have handed the jailed head of a Russian potash producer over to authorities in Russia in a move that is likely to soothe tensions between the two former Soviet states

* A trio of Russian government agencies have approved a set of criteria determining what material falls under a ban on child pornography, drug use advocacy, and promotion of suicide on the Internet, Russia’s government newspaper Rossiyskaya Gazeta said

* Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev called for Russian airlines to be enlarged in a bid to ensure the proper maintenance of their aircraft and the safety of their operations

* Current state restrictions hinder the private sector from financing the development of Russia’s space industry, a senior space official said

* A Dnepr rocket carrying a number of international satellites delivered its cargo into near-earth orbit Thursday following a launch from the Yasny facility in Russia’s Orenburg province

* Moscow police have detained a prominent Russian businessman and in-law of a regional governor for his involvement in a bribery deal, Izvestia newspaper reported, citing a police source