Main News of November 27

A roundup of what has happened in the past 24 hours

WORLD

* About 500 protesters rallied outside the Ukrainian government building in downtown Kiev on Wednesday demanding that the country sign a key trade pact with the European Union

* The Italian Senate on Wednesday expelled three-time ex-Premier Silvio Berlusconi from Parliament over his tax fraud conviction, ending, for now, his two-decade legislative run but not his political career

* A UK court ruled Wednesday that crucial materials relating to the 2006 murder of former Russian security service agent Alexander Litvinenko must remain secret

* Latvian Prime Minister Valdis Dombrovskis resigned Wednesday over a shopping mall disaster in the small Baltic nation that left more than 50 people dead

* Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych said Wednesday that his main political adversary could be released from prison if she pays billions of dollars in compensation for financial damage he claims she inflicted on the country

* Russia and Italy hope that bilateral trade will reach $50 billion this year, President Vladimir Putin said Tuesday after talks in Trieste with the Italian prime minister

RUSSIA

* A suspected militant killed in Russia’s volatile North Caucasus republic of Dagestan on Tuesday was identified as a local gang leader, Russia’s anti-terrorism authority said

* The Russian space agency has notified NASA that the launch of a new Russian research module to the International Space Station has been postponed until at least 2015, a senior space industry official said

* Twenty-two land-based intercontinental ballistic missiles will next year be added to Russia’s nuclear arsenal, President Vladimir Putin said

* A giant designer suitcase-shaped pavilion installed in the middle of Moscow’s Red Square is being dismantled, city authorities said Wednesday, following a wave of public outrage and numerous demands for its removal

* Russian police said Wednesday they have detained a group of people presumed to be members of a banned radical Islamist sect carrying ammunition and an explosive suicide belt

* A Russian newspaper reported Wednesday that the country’s largest coking coal producer has delayed paying salaries as it struggles to manage almost $10 billion of debt

* Authorities in Russia’s Siberian region of Tomsk said Wednesday that they are investigating the misappropriation of almost $1 million worth of timber by a local district official

BUSINESS

* The Russian ruble weakened Wednesday to its lowest level against the euro for four years, likely spurred by central bank policy changes and global economic pressures

DEFENSE

* Russian air defense forces have taken delivery of six Pantsir-S short-range air defense systems to be used by a new missile regiment formed to protect the skies over Moscow, military officials said

* NATO countries and partner nations on Tuesday started large-scale cyber defense exercises aimed at testing the alliance’s ability to fend off cyber attacks against its computer networks, the Estonian Defense Ministry said