Main News of November 29

A roundup of what has happened in the past 24 hours

WORLD

* The international chemical weapons watchdog overseeing the removal of Syria stockpile of poisonous arms will next month double the size of its mission, the organization said.

* European Union leaders said that a deal to let Ukraine boost economic ties with Europe is still on offer after the former Soviet nation backed away from signing at a landmark summit.

* The United Nations condemned a recent attack on the Russian Embassy in Syria that killed one person and injured nine others.

* Georgia and Moldova signed agreements with the European Union at a summit Friday as another ex-Soviet country, Ukraine, confirmed it would not go ahead with a similar deal.

* China signed a deal with Uzbekistan to provide $350 million for construction of a railway tunnel linking the Central Asian nation’s populous Ferghana Valley with the rest of the country.

RUSSIA

* Russia’s Investigative Committee will press criminal charges against former Defense Minister Anatoly Serdyukov within days, a committee spokesman said in an interview.

* An Australian activist with the Greenpeace group detained by Russian authorities during a protest in September became the final member to be released on bail from pretrial detention.

* An administrative case has been launched over a giant Louis Vuitton suitcase-shaped pavilion recently installed in the middle of Moscow’s Red Square, Russian officials said.

* The head of Russia’s largest potash producer Uralkali, who was charged last week with abuse of office, was elected to the board of directors, the company said.

* Russian investigators have again dismissed as without foundation a motion filed by a convicted punk rock group protester to investigate the administration of the prison where she was previously serving her sentence, the local Investigative Committee reported.

* Ultraconservative Christians who have previously targeted erotica exhibits, Pastafarians and supporters of feminist punk group Pussy Riot have attacked a theater performance in Moscow.

Iran’s Russian-built nuclear power plant was not affected by a deadly earthquake in the south of the country on Thursday and continues to operate at full capacity, Russia’s state nuclear corporation said.

DEFENSE

* President Vladimir Putin said that Russia will launch a total of 11 military satellites by 2015.

* Russia plans to develop fully automated air defense radars and deploy them to the Arctic, a senior aerospace defense official said.