Main News of October 4

A roundup of what has happened in the past 24 hours

RUSSIA

* The Kremlin voiced disappointment over the second cancellation in a month of a meeting between the presidents of Russia and the United States as ties remain strained over disagreements on Syria and Moscow’s unwillingness to extradite US intelligence leaker Edward Snowden

* The country now at the helm of the European Union, Lithuania, threatened this week to shut Russia out of its own territory, exposing growing tensions between Moscow and a handful of former Soviet states looking to bolster their economic ties with Brussels

* Russian investigators said that they have confiscated a vast trove of diamonds, gemstones and gold from a key suspect in a fraud case involving the country’s military sector

* The Russian military continues to experience shortage of conscripts physically fit to serve in the armed forces, a senior military official said commenting on the autumn draft period being held in Russia from October 1 to December 31

* A new Project 21630 (Buyan-class) corvette has arrived at a naval base hosting Russia’s Caspian Flotilla to boost the country’s maritime defenses in the region, a flotilla’s spokesman said

WORLD

* The Netherlands has taken legal action against Russia, saying it illegally seized a Dutch-flagged ship and its crew during a Greenpeace protest against a Gazprom oil rig in the Arctic

* Lawyers for jailed former Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko say she has agreed to undergo medical treatment in Germany in the hope of improving her nation’s ties with the European Union, UNIAN news agency reported

* A group of Georgian nationalists has burnt a Russian flag during a rally in Tbilisi demanding the return of breakaway regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia to Georgia, the Georgia Online news agency reported

* Libya has officially apologized for a mob’s attack on the Russian Embassy in Tripoli and said it was ready to pay for all damage sustained in the incident, Russia’s Foreign Ministry said

* An ultra-rare Fabergé statuette depicting a royal Russian bodyguard that was long thought lost has been discovered in an attic in New York State and could fetch up to $800,000 at auction later this month, The New York Times has reported