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China's third-largest auto show kicked off Tuesday (24 November) in the country's southern city of Guangzhou, as more than 600 international car makers gather to showcase their latest models together with their Chinese joint ventures. Themed as "Technology, Trend and New Life", the annual auto show presents about 70 new models for the first time in China.
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China intends to cut carbon intensity by 40-45% by 2020 compared to 2005 levels, the Chinese State Council said Thursday.
"This is a considerable contribution to the fight against global climate change," the government said in a statement.
Carbon intensity is the total of carbon dioxide emitted for each unit of GDP. After the U.S., China is the world's second largest greenhouse gas emitter.
Prime Minister Wen Jiabao will speak on the country's plans at a UN climate summit in Copenhagen, due on December 7-18. The goal of the Copenhagen talks is to set new targets for cutting greenhouse gases, and to raise funds to help poor countries tackle the effects of global warming.
The conference is expected to see the signing of a new international document to replace the Kyoto Protocol on climate change, some elements of which expire in 2012.
The overwhelming consensus of climate change experts, environmental groups and organizations is that climate change is caused by greenhouse gas emissions due to human activity, which is causing significant damage to the Earth, although a minority argues that the possible impact has not yet been proven.
BEIJING, November 26 (RIA Novosti)
Iran will cut contacts with the UN nuclear watchdog if it passes a resolution condemning its uranium activities, the country's ambassador to the IAEA said on Thursday.
The International Atomic Energy Agency is to vote on a draft resolution reflecting concerns about Tehran's second uranium enrichment facility - disclosed in September - and its reluctance to agree to the UN-brokered compromise on nuclear fuel for its power plants. The vote is expected to take place before the weekend.
"If the IAEA Board of Governors passes the resolution on Iran, the Islamic Republic will cut to a minimum its cooperation with the agency," Ali Asghar Soltanieh said, as quoted by the Fars news agency.
Speaking at a session of the 35-nation board of governors on Thursday, the IAEA chief said his inquiry into allegations that Iran seeks to build nuclear weapons is at "a dead end" as Tehran is not cooperating.
"There has been no movement on remaining issues of concern which need to be clarified for the agency to verify the exclusively peaceful nature of Iran's nuclear program," Mohammed ElBaradei said. "We have effectively reached a dead end, unless Iran engages fully with us."
ElBaradei also expressed disappointment that Iran has not so far agreed to the plan to ship the bulk of its low-enriched uranium abroad for processing into fuel, which would ease international concerns that it uses the material to make bombs.
The latest draft resolution was proposed by Britain, China, Germany, France, Russia and the United States, the six nations involved in a long-running nuclear dispute with Iran.
Tehran is already under three sets of UN sanctions for refusing to halt uranium enrichment. Iran insists it needs nuclear technology to generate electricity, claiming the right under the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty.
Russia and China have so far blocked UN Security Council votes on tougher sanctions against the country. However, at a meeting in Brussels last week they joined the other negotiators in voicing dismay at a lack of progress in the negotiations.
The draft resolution urges Iran to prove the absence of more undeclared nuclear facilities, to put the second uranium enrichment center on hold, and give the IAEA access to full information on its nuclear activities.
MOSCOW, November 26 (RIA Novosti)
The Greek owner of a ship held by pirates for more than six months in the Indian Ocean denied media reports on Monday that the vessel had been released after a deal was struck.
The Ariana cargo ship, with a crew of 24 Ukrainian sailors, was seized by pirates 250 miles southwest of the Seychelles on May 2. Reuters reported earlier on Thursday, citing a pirates' associate, that the ship had been freed.
"I do not confirm this information. We did not make any deals with pirates," the head of the Alloseans Shipping company, Spiros Minas, said.
"The pirates have made such statements before. At the moment, I do not confirm it," he said.
The pirates, who initially demanded $10 million, said in late October they had agreed a $3.5-million ransom and were ready to release the ship in 48 hours.
The press service of Ukraine's foreign ministry said they were verifying the report.
Ariana was hijacked en route to the Middle East from Brazil and was escorted to the Somali port of Hobyo. The vessel was carrying 35,000 metric tons of soya.
ATHENS/KIEV/MOSCOW, November 26 (RIA Novosti)
Two journalists from Canada and Australia have been released after 15 months of captivity in war-torn Somalia, international media reported on Thursday.
Nigel Brennan, an Australian photojournalist, and Canadian freelance reporter Amanda Lindhout were abducted by Somali militants on the outskirts of the country's capital, Mogadishu, on August 23, 2008, just three days after arriving in the country.
They were freed on Wednesday night, after being held captive for 459 days.
Lindhout told Canadian television she was isolated, beaten and tortured during her captivity.
"It was extremely oppressive. I was kept by myself at all times. I had no one to speak to. I was normally kept in a room with a light, no window. I had nothing to write on or with. There was very little food. I was allowed to use the toilet exactly five times a day," the released journalist was quoted by the Sydney Morning Herald as saying in an interview with CTV.
She said her and Brennan's families paid a ransom to the kidnappers to secure their release.
According to the Toronto Sun website, the 28-year-old journalist had been working as a TV reporter in foreign hotspots such as Africa and Iraq, when she went to Somalia to report on refugees in camps displaced by the violence.
The war-ravaged country has been without an effective government since 1991.
MOSCOW, November 26 (RIA Novosti)
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez and Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad have pledged to pool their efforts in the struggle against imperialism, according to media reports.
Both leaders condemned U.S. imperialism, while Chavez said Israel was "a murderous arm of the Yankee empire."
During a visit to Latin America on Wednesday Ahmadinejad said "Chavez is a great revolutionary" and that the two leaders were "brothers."
The Venezuelan president returned the compliment, describing his Iranian colleague as a "gladiator" against imperialism, as well as "brother and comrade-in-arms" in the fight against U.S. imperialism.
"I can say that you are a hero and a symbol of resistance in the fight against imperialism," IRNA quoted Chavez as saying.
Chavez condemned recent remarks by Israeli President Shimon Peres who had said that Ahmadinejad and Chavez would disappear soon.
"What the president of Israel said, we take as a threat," he said.
MOSCOW, November 26 (RIA Novosti)
Mediators reported progress on the Nagorny Karabakh settlement as Azerbaijani and Armenian presidents Ilham Aliyev and Serzh Sargsyan exchanged opinions on the issue at a meeting in Munich on Sunday.
Nagorny Karabakh, a region in Azerbaijan with a largely Armenian population, has been a source of conflict between the former Soviet republics since the late 1980s. The mountainous province has its own government and is de facto independent.
French mediator Bernard Fassier said Sunday "some important progress" was reached but outlined certain "difficulties."
The presidents met for the sixth time since the start of the year. Their previous meeting took place on October 8, during the CIS summit in Chisinau.
The war between Azerbaijan and Armenia over the mountainous enclave in 1988-1994 left an estimated 35,000 people dead. Sporadic violence on the border has continued ever since.
The Madrid principles on the Karabakh settlement, put forward in November 2007, stipulate that the occupied Armenian territories surrounding Nagorny Karabakh should be brought back under Azerbaijan's control. They also envision a future referendum of self-determination in Karabakh.
The conflict is mediated by the Minsk Group of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, comprising the U.S., Russia and France.
BAKU, November 22 (RIA Novosti)
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Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has met with newly elected Afghan President Hammid Karzai ahead of his inauguration, which is to take place in Kabul on Thursday.
The Russian delegation arrived in Kabul earlier on Thursday.
Lavrov expressed to Karzai congratulations from Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and said Russia will continue rendering economic and moral support to Afghanistan and its authorities.
Karzai said in his turn the country is grateful to Russia for its help.
The inauguration ceremony is being held on Thursday in the presidential palace, and will be attended by senior diplomats from the U.K., France, Italy, Canada, Germany, Turkey, Sweden, Lithuania, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Pakistan, India, the U.A.E., and the U.S. The Russian delegation will also attend.
Ahead of the ceremony, international troops at NATO-led ISAF military bases in Kabul and its outskirts have been put on full combat alert.
Security has been toughened at the offices of international organizations and missions working in Kabul, while all international staff have been recommended to stay indoors.
Karzai was declared the winner of Afghanistan's presidential elections on November 2 when officials scrapped the second round of voting following the withdrawal of his opponent, former foreign minister Abdullah Abdullah.
KABUL, November 19 (RIA Novosti)
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MOSCOW, November 19 (RIA Novosti) A secret CIA prison was probably located on the territory of an exclusive horse riding school near Vilnius, ABC News said on its website on Thursday, citing a former Lithuanian government official.
ABC News reported in mid-August that Lithuania, along with Poland and Romania, had a secret CIA prison on its territory, where suspected al-Qaeda terrorists were secretly kept and interrogated. The precise site had not been confirmed until now. Thailand, Romania, Poland, Morocco, and Afghanistan have also been identified as countries that housed secret prisons.
"The activities in that prison were illegal," said John Sifton, whose company investigates human rights abuses. "They included various forms of torture, including sleep deprivation, forced standing, painful stress positions."
Lithuania apparently agreed to host the prison after the then president George Bush pledged support for Lithuania's NATO bid during his visit to the country in 2002.
"The new members of NATO were so grateful for the U.S. role in getting them into that organization that they would do anything the U.S. asked for during that period," said Richard Clarke, a former White House counterterrorism official.
"They were eager to please and eager to be cooperative on security and on intelligence matters," he added.
Official Lithuanian representatives provided the U.S. TV channel with documents on the prison's construction.
In March 2004, a horse-riding facility in the forest 20 km northeast of the city center of Vilnius, was bought by Elite, LLC, a now-defunct company registered in Delaware, Panama and Washington, D.C.
The construction continued for several months, with prefabricated elements apparently flown from outside Lithuania.
Local residents say they saw large amounts of earth being excavated during the presumable construction period. Some locals say those who were looking for work at the construction site were turned away by English-speaking guards.
The prison apparently opened in September 2004.
Lithuanian president Dalia Grybauskaite called for an investigation after first reports on the secret prison were made public in August.
"If this is true, Lithuania has to clean up, accept responsibility, apologize, and promise it will never happen again" she said. She however turned down the TV channel's interview offer after the prison's location was established.
The CIA also declined to comment on the report.
"The CIA's terrorist interrogation program is over. This agency does not discuss publicly where detention facilities may or may not have been," a CIA spokesman, Paul Gimigliano, said.
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A meeting of the Russia-NATO Council's foreign ministers will be held on December 4 in Brussels, a NATO spokesman said on Thursday.
The upcoming meeting, the first official one to be held since the August 2008 armed conflict between Russia and Georgia over South Ossetia, will be organized as part of a session of NATO foreign ministers in Brussels on December 3-4.
During an informal ministerial meeting in Greece in June, Russia and NATO agreed to renew cooperation on security issues, which was frozen after Russia and Georgia fought a five-day war in August over the former Georgian republic of South Ossetia, after which Russia recognized the independence of South Ossetia and Abkhazia, another former Georgian republic.
Relations have also been strained by Russia's resistance to Georgia and Ukraine's bids to join NATO.
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said in October that "Russia is ready to harmonize relations with the United States and other Western partners, including constructive cooperation with NATO in resolving common tasks."
BRUSSELS, November 19 (RIA Novosti)
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STOCKHOLM, November 18 (RIA Novosti) - Russian President Dmitry Medvedev arrived in Stockholm on Tuesday and met with Swedish Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt.
Presidential spokeswoman Natalya Timakova said Medvedev's working visit to Sweden began with an unofficial dinner with Reinfeldt, with the two leaders holding bilateral talks ahead of the EU-Russia summit scheduled for Wednesday morning.
"The president and the premier discussed Russian-Swedish relations, bilateral economic cooperation as well as certain topics of the international agenda: Russia-EU interaction, Middle East settlement, Iran, Afghanistan," she said.
On Wednesday, King Charles XII will grant an audience to the Russian president.
Kremlin aide Sergei Prikhodko earlier said Russia welcomes EU reform. The EU reform treaty, called the Lisbon Treaty, now ratified by all 27 member states, will come into force on December 1.
"We hail the Swedish authorities' pragmatism and consistency, which we hope will ensure the effectiveness of both the bilateral meeting and the EU-Russia summit," Prikhodko said, adding the summit was taking place "at a critical point" when "ratification procedures of the Lisbon Treaty are being concluded."
Prikhodko said Russian and EU officials would focus on climate change, efforts to overcome the consequences of the global credit crunch and the issue of energy supplies to Europe.
Russia has called on the European Union to take steps, including financial ones, to prevent problems again arising in Russian natural gas transit via Ukraine to Europe. Russian gas supplies to Europe were halted in January over a debt dispute, leaving much of Europe short of energy.
Prikhodko also said that Moscow and Brussels had already held several rounds of talks on a new partnership and cooperation agreement. The current Russia-EU agreement expired in late 2007, but was automatically extended. In early October, the sixth round of talks on the new agreement took place in Brussels.
Medvedev is also expected to discuss with his European colleagues North Korea's nuclear problem, the situation in Pakistan, and the Cyprus and Kosovo issues. The agenda of talks will also include the issue of European security, Prikhodko said.
Medvedev proposed in the summer of 2008 setting up an organization ensuring peace in Europe, in which no state or organization would have a monopoly.
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RUSSIA
WORLD
* China agrees with the U.S. that Iran must prove itsnuclear program is of a peaceful nature and not aimed at producing an atomic bomb, U.S. President Barack Obama said in Beijing
* The United States has said it will continue to press Iran to fulfill its international obligations in the nuclear sphere after the UN nuclear watchdog had reiterated its suspicions over the nature ofTehran's nuclear program
BUSINESS
CULTURE
SCIENCE
* NASA has successfully launched spaceshuttle Atlantis on an 11-day supply and crew rotation mission to theInternational Space Station
DAMASCUS, November 18 (RIA Novosti) - The Russian-Syrian commission on trade, economic, scientific and technological cooperation is opening its seventh meeting on Wednesday in Damascus.
The commission is co-chaired by Russian Communications Minister Igor Shchyogolev and Syrian Economy and Trade Minister Amir Husni Lutfi.
The two countries will discuss the state and prospects of bilateral economic, trade, investment, scientific, technological, energy, agriculture, housing, transport and IT cooperation.
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UNITED NATIONS, November 17 (RIA Novosti) - UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has deplored Tuesday's decision by Israel to expand an East Jerusalem settlement.
Israeli authorities on Tuesday authorized the construction of 900 additional housing units for Jewish families in the Gilo settlement - a move condemned even by Israel's ally United States.
Ban said Gilo was built on Palestinian territory occupied by Israel in the 1967 war.
"The Secretary-General reiterates his position that settlements are illegal, and calls on Israel to respect its commitments under the Road Map [a peace plan for Israel and Palestinians] to cease all settlement activity, including natural growth," a statement issued by Ban's spokesman said.
"He believes that such actions undermine efforts for peace and cast doubt on the viability of the two-State solution," the statement said.
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Arkady Gaidamak, an Israeli businessman of Soviet origin, has protested his innocence in a Russian newspaper interview after he was sentenced in absentia by a French court to six years in prison.
Gaidamak was convicted of illegal arms deliveries to Angola, tax evasion and corruption, and the Paris court on October 27 handed down jail terms to him and his partner, French entrepreneur Pierre Falcone, who was immediately taken into custody.
The businessman's lawyers in France have filed an appeal.
In an interview published by the business daily Vedomosti on Wednesday, Gaidamak said the case was "pure politics" but vowed to return to France and prove his innocence. He is believed to be in Russia, but has French, Angolan, Israeli and Canadian citizenship.
"I have great respect for Russia but have not applied for citizenship. I will end up going to France to explain that I was right and that the harassment against me is politically motivated," he said.
In all, 42 people stood trial, including former French interior minister Charles Pasqua and Jean-Christophe Mitterrand, the son of late French president Francois Mitterrand. Six were acquitted.
Gaidamak also told the paper he had lost all his business interests due to the case, and would not try to start again until he had cleared his name.
He denied breaking any arms embargo, saying that all shipments were made by Russian state companies.
"I myself have never participated in the supply of military equipment. My role was to sell oil and guarantees payment," he was quoted as saying.
MOSCOW, November 18 (RIA Novosti)
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The Honduran parliament will decide on December 2 whether ousted President Manuel Zelaya should be reinstated, congressional leader Alfredo Saavedra said.
The parliament will gather to vote on Zelaya's reinstatement three days after the country holds presidential elections on November 29. Neither Zelaya, who was bundled out of the country on June 28, nor interim leader Roberto Micheletti will take part.
Micheletti, the parliamentary speaker, was named president after the military followed instructions from the Supreme Court and parliament and flew Zelaya to Costa Rica.
Many countries and international bodies have warned they would not recognize election results if the Honduran polls are held under the Micheletti presidency, but Micheletti maintains that Zelaya's removal was a constitutional transfer of power and not a coup.
Talks to end the crisis have so far failed even though the sides signed a U.S.-brokered accord, which envisions a congressional vote to reinstate Zelaya, who secretly returned to the country on September 21 and took refuge in the Brazilian Embassy.
BUENOS AIRES, November 18 (RIA Novosti)
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WASHINGTON, November 17 (RIA Novosti) - Regular transit of U.S. military cargo and personnel to Afghanistan over the Russian territory will start soon after the final logistics issues have been resolved, a U.S government official said.
Moscow and Washington signed the Air Transit Agreement on July 6 during President Barack Obama's visit to Russia.
"We anticipate that regular flights will start as soon as we have worked out the remaining logistical details," U.S. State Department spokesman Ian Kelly told a daily press briefing on Monday.
He said that Richard Holbrooke, President Barack Obama's special envoy to Afghanistan and Pakistan, and a separate group of U.S. military experts "are currently discussing [in Moscow] with Russian counterparts assistance coordination and also implementing modalities" of the agreement.
"I think one of the points that we're trying to iron out is notification processes that have to be in place. We're also working with other countries on the transit routes since anything over-flying Russia to go to Afghanistan would have to fly over other countries as well," the diplomat said.
The Pentagon plans to make at least 4,500 flights to Afghanistan via Russian airspace as the number of U.S. troops deployed in the fight against the Taliban militants and drug-trafficking in the war-torn Central Asian state is expected to swell to some 68,000.
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BEIJING, November 16 (RIA Novosti) - U.S. President Barack Obama said on Monday that Washington would continue to support a "one-China" policy.
"I have been clear in the past the United States supports one-China policy ... we don't want to change that policy or approach," he said. "Through dialogue and communications
problems can be solved."
He refused to answer a question on arms sales to Taiwan, which split from the mainland in 1949.
Speaking on his first presidential visit to China, Obama also said that he wanted to see more cooperation with the world's most populous country.
"More is gained when great powers cooperate than when they collide," he said.
He also used a speech at a town-hall meeting to push democratic ideals.
"We do not seek to impose any system of government on any other nation," Obama said. "But we also don't believe that the principles that we stand for are unique to our nation."
"These freedoms of expression, and worship, of access to information and political participation _ we believe they are universal rights. They should be available to all people, including ethnic and religious minorities, whether they are in the United States, China or any nation," he added.
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MOSCOW, November 16 (RIA Novosti) - IAEA chief Mohamed ElBaradei will issue a new report on Iran's nuclear program to the agency's board of directors on Monday, Iran's Mehr news agency reported.
The contents of the new International Atomic Energy Agency report have not yet been disclosed. The report may be ElBaradei's last as he steps down from the IAEA on November 30.
Britain, China, France, Germany, Russia and the United States have been trying to persuade Iran to halt uranium enrichment for economic and diplomatic incentives. Iran-Six envoys last met in Geneva on October 1.
Turkey last week said it would be willing to store enriched uranium for use in Iranian atomic power plants, to ease international concerns over Iran's nuclear program.
Iran has so far rejected offers from nuclear powers Russia and France to store its low-enriched uranium, and is under international pressure to accept a compromise. The UN nuclear watchdog had suggested Turkey as a neutral country, which has built good relations with Iran in recent months.
Iran has rejected Western suspicions that it secretly plans to build nuclear weapons and insisted on its right to nuclear technology for electricity generation.
Russia has consistently supported Iran's right to peaceful nuclear energy and has developed the Islamic Republic's first nuclear plant. On Monday, Russian Energy Minister Sergei Shmatko said that while the Bushehr plant would not be launched this year as planned, Russia remained "committed to its obligations to Iran."
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TEL AVIV, November 16 (RIA Novosti) - Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said he was ready to resume peace negotiations with Syria and called for France to replace Turkey as the mediator, local media reported.
"Israel is ready for talks with Syria without preconditions, ideally direct talks," Netanyahu was quoted by the Jerusalem Post as saying at a government meeting on Sunday.
"If there will be a mediator we prefer an honest one. The Turkish prime minister objectively did not strengthen the perception that he could be an honest mediator in recent weeks. I prefer the French," he added.
Israel and Syria held four rounds of indirect negotiations mediated by Ankara last year. The talks came to a standstill in December, when the Israeli launched an offensive against Hamas in Gaza. Ties between Israel and Turkey have deteriorated since then.
Last week, the Israeli prime minister said he was ready to start direct negotiations with the Syrians. Syrian President Bashar Assad rejected Israel's proposal and said he preferred indirect negotiations mediated by Turkey.
A dispute over the Golan Heights, annexed by Israel after the Six Day War with Syria, Egypt, and Jordan in June 1967, has been a major obstacle to reviving peace negotiations between the two states. The Syrians demand Israel withdrawal from all of the Golan Heights in exchange for normalizing bilateral relations.
Netanyahu has reiterated his refusal to fulfill the demand.
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RIO DE JANEIRO, November 16 (RIA Novosti) - Hundreds of people gathered for protests in Brazil's largest city of Sao Paolo against the upcoming visit of Iran's president, a local Jewish youth movement said.
Protesters marched along central Paulista avenue, accusing Iran's leader of inciting national enmity. They demanded the Brazilian government withdraw Ahmadinejad's invitation.
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is expected to visit Brazil on November 23. His visit, originally scheduled for May, was postponed twice due to a wave of protests which sparked across the country.
After his May visit was cancelled minutes before the start of an official news conference at the Brazilian foreign ministry, the Iranian leader said he was ready to visit Brazil after Iranian presidential polls in June. However, the visit did not take place again.
In October 2005, Ahmadinejad was condemned by the international community after he said the Holocaust is a myth and that Israel should be "wiped off the map."
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SINGAPORE, November 14 (RIA Novosti) - Nations should coordinate their macroeconomic policies, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev told the APEC business forum on Saturday.
The current global financial crisis had demonstrated interdependence of national economies, the Russian president said.
"The coordination of national macroeconomic policies, namely controlling and monitoring financial systems of states and the global economy on the whole, becomes particularly important in this respect," Medvedev said.
Any state has the right to receive additional information and to assess not only its actions, but also those of its partners, the Russian leader said.
"Our own actions could often be neutralized by mistakes and economic policies of other countries," Medvedev said.
He added that APEC countries should coordinate actions "not only in coordinating financial policies, but also while solving the issues of social guarantees, accessibility and quality of education, [and] the mobility of workforce."
According to the Russian president, restoring international trade was vital to recover from the crisis.
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SINGAPORE, November 14 (RIA Novosti) - Russian President Dmitry Medvedev spoke out on Saturday against protectionism in any spheres, adding that Russia's measures to support its businessmen are short-term.
"Here, in Singapore we must reiterate these commitments and do anything to avoid protectionism in any spheres," Medvedev told a business summit of the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum.
He added that Russia would soon intensify efforts to become a global financial center.
"Such efforts will be intensified soon," Medvedev said.
The head of Russia's national development bank Vnesheconombank, Vladimir Dmitriyev, said the global financial center could be created in Russia "in a five-year perspective."
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RUSSIA
* Russian Pacific Fleet naval ships have brought parts of aRussian military Tu-142 plane that crashed late Friday to the surface, local emergencies services said
WORLD
* Thousands of people gathered in front of the Brandenburg Gate despite steady rain for a concert marking the20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall
*The Lebanese prime minister, Saad Hariri, formed a new government with the militant group Hezbollah-led opposition, putting an end to months of political uncertainty in the country
MOSCOW, November 11 (RIA Novosti) - Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin will meet with Austrian Chancellor Werner Faymann on Wednesday to discuss Russian gas supplies to Europe, the Russian government's press service has said.
The issue was raised at Faymann's meeting with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev on Tuesday. Russia supplies up to 90% of natural gas consumed in Austria.
The two heads of governments are set to discuss the draft Russian-Austrian intergovernmental agreement on the construction of the Austrian section of the South Stream pipeline.
The South Stream gas project, scheduled to be completed by 2015, is part of Russia's efforts to cut dependence on transit nations. It is a rival project to the EU-backed Nabucco, which would bypass Russia.
The 25 billion-euro ($36.5 billion) project is designed to annually pump 31 billion cubic meters of Central Asian and Russian gas to the Balkans and on to other European countries, bypassing Ukraine, which has frequent disputes with Russia over gas supplies and transits. The pipeline's capacity is expected to be eventually increased to 63 billion cubic meters.
On May 15 Russian energy giant Gazprom signed a package of project-related documents with Bulgaria, Greece and Serbia. Similar agreements are now being coordinated with Slovenia and Austria.
The two officials are also expected to discuss measures to increase and diversify bilateral trade, which totaled $5.4 billion in 2008.
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MOSCOW, November 11 (RIA Novosti) - Russia and the South Ossetia are set to raise the issue of a possible Georgian attack on its former territories during the Geneva talks on situation in the Caucasus to begin on Wednesday.
The Geneva talks are backed by the UN, the EU and the OSCE and involve Georgia, Russia, South Ossetia and Abkhazia. The previous, seventh round of talks took place in September.
Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Grigory Karasin said Russia had "alarming facts" that show that Tbilisi was still counting on using force to regain control over its former republics of Abkhazia and South Ossetia.
He also said that Russia would again raise the question of concluding treaties on the non-use of force between Georgia and its former republics.
South Ossetia said it would also present "conclusive evidence" that a new Georgian aggression against the former republic is being prepared.
The Georgian delegation plans to raise the issue of four Georgian teenagers, detained in South Ossetia reportedly while in possession of grenades and explosive substances. In a similar move, South Ossetia will urge the release of three of its nationals apparently abducted from its territory by Georgian special services on October 13, 2008.
Russia recognized the independence of the former Georgian republics of Abkhazia and South Ossetia last August after a five-day war with Georgia over the latter, which was attacked by Tbilisi in an attempt to bring it back under central control
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HAVANA, November 11 (RIA Novosti) - Russia's emergencies minister, Sergei Shoigu, arrived in the Cuban capital Havana late on Tuesday to discuss cooperation with his Cuban colleagues.
The Russian minister said he was expected to sign a cooperation plan, which would include "information exchange and training" for Cuban specialists.
"We would draft new projects and implement them," he told journalists.
Shoigu arrived to the Cuban capital from Nicaragua, where he launched a mine-clearing project.
"The Russian government has resolved to allocate a substantial sum to buy equipment and to train Nicaragua specialists to remove mines," Shoigu said, adding that, according to the program, Nicaraguan specialists would complete clearing the country's territory by 2010.
About 179,000 mines were laid in northern and central provinces in Nicaragua in 1980s, only 175,000 of them have so far been cleared.
The Russian delegation will fly to Venezuela from Cuba on Friday.
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NEW YORK, November 10 (RIA Novosti) - The UN General Assembly has called recent presidential elections in Afghanistan "credible" and "legitimate."
The resolution, adopted on Monday, comes shortly after Hamid Karzai was declared the winner of Afghanistan's presidential elections when officials scrapped the second round of voting following the withdrawal of his opponent.
The UN welcomed the electoral efforts of the Afghan authorities "to ensure a credible and legitimate process," and urged Karzai's government to press ahead with a "strengthening of the rule of law."
Abdullah Abdullah was Karzai's only challenger in the November 7 runoff, but the former Afghan foreign minister announced that he would not take part in the second round due to the president's refusal to dismiss the nation's top election official and take other action to prevent fraud.
The runoff was scheduled after Karzai, who was officially given 54.6% of the first-round vote, bowed to international pressure and accepted the findings of the UN-backed Electoral Complaints Commission, which said the election was tainted by wide-scale fraud.
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BUENOS AIRES, November 10 (RIA Novosti) - El Salvador began three days of mourning on Tuesday for the approximate 130 victims of hurricane Ida, the country's national radio said.
Local authorities have declared a state of emergency in the country where last weekend's hurricane destroyed over 1,800 homes and 18 bridges, leaving 14,000 people homeless.
The toll is believed to include 49 children, and another 60 locals are missing in Verapaz, 50 km east of the capital, San Salvador, which was hit hardest.
Addressing an extraordinary Cabinet meeting on Monday, President Mauricio Funes described the damage inflicted by the hurricane as "uncountable."
International humanitarian packages have started arriving in the small Central American country. Venezuela has sent a planeload of food, while Guatemala and Nicaragua have provided relief workers and rescue equipment. The United States has channeled $100,000 into the construction of temporary housing.
On Monday, Ida subsided into a tropical storm as it crossed the Gulf of Mexico.
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MINSK, November 10 (RIA Novosti) - A delegation of Belarusian MPs will visit the two former Georgian republics of Abkhazia and South Ossetia on November 17-19 to study their request on recognizing their independence, a senior lawmaker said on Tuesday.
"Belarusian deputies and senators intend to study the situation on the spot to make a decision on whether to recognize the independence of Abkhazia and South Ossetia or not," said Sergei Maskevich, chairman of the lower house's commission for international relations with former Soviet republics.
Abkhazia and South Ossetia asked Belarus to recognize their independence last year. However, Belarus has so far refused to join Russia in recognizing the republics.
Russia recognized the two republics shortly after a five-day war with Georgia in August 2008 that began when Georgian forces attacked South Ossetia in an attempt to bring it back under central control. Abkhazia and South Ossetia have also been recognized by Nicaragua and Venezuela.
The Belarusian parliament resolved last week to establish a working group to consider the recognition of the former Georgian republics.
www.rian.ru
MOSCOW, November 10 (RIA Novosti) - Iran will launch a low orbiting research satellite in cooperation with an Italian company in 2011, Iranian media reported on Tuesday.
The Mesbah (Lantern) satellite will weigh 63.5 kilograms.
Mehr News Agency quoted Gen. Mahdi Farahi, the head of Iran's Aero Space Industries, as saying: "Italy will cooperate with Aerospace Industries Organization to send Mesbah into space. We hope the launch will be carried out successfully in 2011."
"The completion of the semi-domestic research satellite Mesbah is another recent achievement of Iranian aerospace experts," he said.
The satellite, with a lifespan of three years, "is equipped with a store and forward communications receiver that can gather information from various parts of the planet and transmit it back to Earth."
Iran had earlier planned to use Russia for the satellite's launch. The project was started in 1977, but abandoned and restarted in 1996.
Israeli media have said the satellite will be used for spying purposes.
www.rian.ru
MOSCOW, November 10 (RIA Novosti) - At least 30 people were killed and more than 40 others injured on Tuesday in a car bomb explosion in the northwest Pakistani city of Charsadda, Al Jazeera reported.
The bomb went off on a road intersection near a busy market, destroying several shops and cars. The news network said the death toll could rise further.
"Police are trying to piece together what happened exactly, but there are fears that the casualties might be much higher than reported earlier," a correspondent said.
The attack, believed to have been carried out by militants in retaliation against anti-terrorist operations on the Afghan border, is the third to hit northwest Pakistan in three days. No groups have claimed responsibility for today's blast.
At least 11 people, including a local mayor, were killed and 36 others injured in a suicide bomb attack on the outskirts of Peshawar on Sunday. On Monday, a terrorist in a rickshaw blew himself up near a group of police officers in the city, killing three.
The area separating Pakistan and Afghanistan has been a stronghold for Taliban radicals who fled Afghanistan after the U.S.-led invasion toppled the Taliban regime there in 2001, as well as for Al-Qaeda fighters.
www.rian.ru
GAZA, October 30 (RIA Novosti) - Israeli authorities have refused to allow medical equipment worth $800,000 to be transferred to the Gaza Strip, the Palestinian news agency Ma'an reported on Friday.
The news agency quoted a spokesman for the World Health Organization (WHO) as saying Israel had prevented, for the fourth time, the transfer of medical equipment to Gaza through the Kerem Shalom border crossing, even though WHO had provided the required permit.
There has so far been no official comment from Israel.
The Gaza Strip has been the subject of an almost continuous Israeli blockade since radical Islamic group Hamas took control of the enclave in the summer of 2007, ousting Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas's Fatah movement after five days of armed conflict.
However, Israel has so far permitted humanitarian supplies to the enclave, as well as transfers of some essential goods.
www.rian.ru
MOSCOW, October 30 (RIA Novosti) - South Ossetia and Abkhazia will officially ask Ecuador to recognize their independence, the former Georgian republics' foreign ministers told RIA Novosti on Friday.
The news followed Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa's promise on Friday to consider the requests should they be submitted. Correa arrived on a three-day visit to Russia on Wednesday.
"South Ossetia will submit an official request. We will be grateful to the leadership of Ecuador and any other country that recognizes our independence," South Ossetian Foreign Minister Murat Dzhioyev said.
"We are working on the issue. Abkhazia has already made certain steps in this direction, and will continue working," Abkhaz Foreign Minister Sergei Shamba said. The ministers did not specify the date.
Russia recognized Abkhazia and South Ossetia as independent republics shortly after a five-day war with Georgia in August 2008that began when Georgian forces attacked South Ossetia in an attempt to bring it back under central control.
Nicaragua and Venezuela have also recognized the two former Georgian republics.
www.rian.ru
MOSCOW, October 27 (RIA Novosti) - Yemen's navy has seized in its territorial waters in the Red Sea an Iranian ship loaded with anti-tank weaponry, Al-Arabiya satellite television reported citing government sources.
The ship, crewed by five Iranians and one Indian, was reportedly carrying the shipment to Yemen's northern coast to be later delivered to the Shiite Zaidi rebels in the Saada province.
According to the United Nations, at least 3,500 people died in the conflict, and the fighting has caused over 150,000 civilians to flee their homes, resulting in a severe humanitarian crisis.
Hundreds have died in the latest clashes after the army launched on August 11 its 'Operation Scorched Earth' aimed at capturing the rebels' stronghold in Saada.
The Shiite Zaidi rebels are a minority in the mainly Sunni Yemen, but form the majority of the population in the mountainous northern region of the country.
Yemen has repeatedly accused Shiite-dominated Iran of backing the rebels.
www.rian.ru
UNITED NATIONS, October 26 (RIA Novosti) - A total of 330 Russian peacekeepers are participating in five UN missions in African countries, including Sudan and Chad, Russia's envoy to the UN said.
"Russian peacekeepers are involved in almost all UN missions on the continent. We intend to continue our support of African countries aimed at strengthening peace and stability in this region," Vitaly Churkin said at a meeting of the UN Security Council on Monday.
As of August 31, 2009, 154 Russian peacekeepers were deployed in Sudan, comprising 123 military personnel from a helicopter support group, 12 military observers and 19 UN police officers.
The rest of Russian peacekeepers participate in UN operations in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Western Sahara and Cote d'Ivoire.
The group provides transport services for UN military observers in Sudan, including accompanying freight, and also carries out rescue operations.
The UN Mission in Sudan was established in 2005 to monitor the peace agreement between the government in Khartoum and the Sudan People's Liberation Movement in southern Sudan, which ended the longest-running civil war in Africa.
The first unit of Russian peacekeepers arrived in Sudan in April 2006. They are expected to stay in the country for up to six years with regular rotations every six months.
www.rian.ru
SARAJEVO, October 27 (RIA Novosti) - Former Bosnian Serb President Biljana Plavsic will be released from a Swedish prison on Tuesday after serving two-thirds of her 11-year term for war crimes in the 1990s.
The Swedish authorities earlier confirmed an early release of the 79-year-old former Bosnian Serb politician following a decision by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) in The Hague.
According to media reports, the decision met with protests by Bosnian Muslim relatives of victims of the 1992-95 war, but was celebrated by Bosnian Serbs.
Plavsic was president of Republika Srpska for two years, from 1996 through 1998, and was convicted of crimes against humanity in February 2003 after surrendering to the ICTY in January 2001.
Besides being the highest-ranking Bosnian Serb politician to be sentenced, she was also known for her fiery nationalist statements during the War in Bosnia.
In 1992, a widely-circulated photographed showed her stepping over the body of a dead Muslim civilian to kiss the notorious Serb warlord Zeljko Raznatovic, also known as Arkan.
The former university professor is the only woman to be sentenced by the ICTY since its establishment in 1993.
According to the Serbian media, Plavsic, who may still face persecution in the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, "will be flown to Belgrade on a government plane, accompanied by the Prime Minister of Republika Srpska Milorad Dodik."
The Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina is primarily inhabited by Bosniaks and Bosnian Croats, while Serbs constitute 88% of the population in the Republika Srpska, although both entities are two main political-territorial divisions of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Meanwhile, another former Bosnian Serb leader, Radovan Karadzic, failed to appear for the start of his trial on war crimes and genocide charges at The Hague's International Criminal Tribunal on Monday.
Karadzic, 64, maintains he needed at least nine more months to prepare his defense. He is defending himself against charges that include the massacre of some 7,000 Muslim men and boys in Srebrenica in 1995.
www.rian.ru
MOSCOW, October 26 (RIA Novosti) - The nephew of interim Honduran President Roberto Micheletti was found in the north of the country with bullet wounds to his head and chest, a Spanish news agency said citing local police.
The 24-year-old man's body was found Sunday in the woods in the northern city of Choloma, police said. Another, unidentified man was found nearby, also shot to death execution-style.
Enzo Micheletti has been missing since October 23, but his relatives were not willing to disclose this information to the media, EFE News reported citing local police spokesman Orlin Cerrato.
Police did not link the murder to the political crisis in the country after the June 28 coup, which brought Roberto Micheletti to power.
He was flown to Costa Rica, but returned to the country on September 21 and took refuge in the Brazilian Embassy.
Talks on ways to resolve the political crisis in Honduras have ended in deadlock after the interim government refused to reinstate the ousted president.
Presidential elections are due to take place in the country on November 29.
www.rian.ru
WORLD
RUSSIA
BUSINESS
SCIENCE
“Why does the USA need these two bases on the Black Sea? To struggle against terrorism? This explanation does not withstand any criticism. There are nearly 4,000 kilometers between Romania and the Middle East. This distance is too large for the nation to maintain its groups in Iraq and Afghanistan.
“One should bear in mind the fact that the Americans started withdrawing their troops from Iraq. Therefore, there is no need to strengthen the infrastructure. To crown it all, American army bases in the Middle East are plentiful.
“I would also like to pay your attention to the fact that the US Military Academy at West Point has recently launched extensive courses to study the Russian culture and language. They started teaching the Iraqi culture and the Arab language three years before invading Iraq.
“Washington is also interested in the energy sources of the Caspian Sea. The bases will probably be established in Romania and Bulgaria to secure the transportation of the Caspian oil and gas,” the expert concluded.
This post was modified from its original form on 23 Oct, 11:51
U.S. attempting to regulate the Internet
From: RussiaToday | 23.10.2009 | Ïðîñìîòðîâ: 303
Debate in the U.S. over net neutrality reached a turning point as the FCC voted to begin regulating the Internet in the name of net neutrality. But will this move end up privileging content providers at the expense of service providers? And what is best for consumers? Priya Sridhar talks with Jim Harper of the Cato Institute.
from http://www.georgiatimes.info/en/
This post was modified from its original form on 23 Oct, 11:41
US army bases will appear on the Black Sea Coast – in Bulgaria and Romania. About $50 million will be assigned to build the base in Romania, and the Pentagon plans to spend $60 million more for the same purpose in Bulgaria.
NEWS USA plans to encircle Russia with missiles and radars
The Romanian base is expected to be put in operation in 2010, whereas the second one will most likely be launched in 2011 or 2012. Over 4,000 US military men are expected to serve at the two bases: 1,600 in Romania and 2,500 in Bulgaria. The authorities of the new nation expect that the US military men will settle there for a long time.
Col. Gary Russ, commander of Joint Task Force-East, sad that no one in Bulgaria and Romania had anything against the US military presence in the two countries. Vice President Joseph Biden, who recently visited several countries of Eastern Europe, including Romania, stated that the European nation supported a new configuration of the US missile defense system.
It is not ruled out that elements of the US missile defense system may eventually appear in Eastern Europe. US officials say that the appearance of army bases in Bulgaria and Romania strictly corresponds to the plans of the US administration to relocate troops in foreign countries (George W. Bush announced the plans in 2004).
It goes about the Pentagon’s intention to cut its 55,000-strong group in Germany and redeploy a part of the troops in several countries of Eastern Europe, including Bulgaria and Romania.
Alexander Khramchikhin, deputy director of the Institute for Political and Military Analysis, said in an interview with Pravda.Ru that the plans of the United States to build army bases in Romania and Bulgaria were exposed nearly a decade ago.
“Indeed, the Americans need more bases for their actions in the Middle East. They have bases in Bahrain, Qatar and Saudi Arabia, but they are not enough to satisfy all of Washington’s needs. The Pentagon needs new bases in Eastern Europe to maintain its troops in the Middle East,” the expert said.
Another expert, Konstantin Sivkov, told Pravda.Ru that the appearance of new army bases in Bulgaria and Romania would pose a threat to Russian interests.
“The number of US military men at the two bases is not going to be large, but who can say that it will not be doubled, tripped or quadrupled in the future? Furthermore, the appearance of NATO bases on the Black Sea coast will come as an addition to the US military objects in the Baltic region. As a result, Russia will find itself trapped.
www.pravda.ru
This post was modified from its original form on 23 Oct, 11:37
TEL AVIV, October 23 (RIA Novosti) - The Israeli foreign minister has urged the UN Secretary General to prevent both the General Assembly and the Security Council from considering a report on Israeli and Palestinian war crimes in the Gaza Strip.
A UN mission set up to investigate the December 2008-January 2009 Gaza conflict released a report in September saying that both Israeli and Palestinian forces had committed "war crimes." The mission was led by former South African judge Richard Goldstone.
"The Israeli foreign minister expressed hope in a recent conversation with the UN secretary general that the UN Human Rights Council's resolution on the Goldstone report would not be passed for consideration in the UN Security Council or the General Assembly," a spokesman for the Foreign Ministry said.
Israel started airstrikes on Gaza on December 27, 2008 in an attempt to stop Palestinian militants firing rockets into Israeli territory. The operation was expanded to a ground offensive, which ended on January 18, 2009. Fighting left more than 1,400 Palestinians and 13 Israelis dead.
Most of the war crimes detailed in the report were on the Israeli side, and the Israeli government has rejected the findings, severely criticizing the report as one-sided. Israel refused to cooperate with the commission, and has said it did enough in working with another UN inquiry, which only looked at the effect of the conflict on UN facilities.
A UN Human Rights Council resolution adopting the Goldstone report was passed in Geneva last Friday.
www.rian.ru
TEHRAN, October 23 (RIA Novosti) - Followers of former Iranian presidential candidate Mehdi Karroubi on Friday clashed with supporters of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad at a media fair in Tehran.
The 16th International Fair of Press and News Agencies was disrupted after Karroubi supporters hailed his arrival and began chanting anti-government slogans.
Ahmadinejad supporters were also in the exhibition hall and attempted to attack Karroubi. Security forces were able to remove Karroubi from the hall safely.
Karroubi supporters also chanted anti-Russian slogans in protest at Russia's support for recent disputed presidential elections in Iran. Russian news agency RIA Novosti's exhibit was undamaged during the disturbances.
Ahmadinejad's re-election in June's polls triggered mass protests in which at least 27 people were killed. About 4,000 people were arrested in Iran's most severe unrest since the 1979 Islamic Revolution.
www.rian.ru
Comment of usafya you can look here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ItbXfYr7NLA&feature=channel
The barbarous nation has given the world of cosmonauts, scientific, great musicians and poets, has great history, treasures which sells and resell all world... And all of us it is equal - BARBARIANS!!!
Under these symbols %#&!*% the indecent word disappears, I think you have understood what...
Then about Russia it is possible to speak about what adequate representation?
About what friendship and good neighbourhood?
Of what isolation us frighten? We were and we remain in isolation even now.(((
Yes, cold war is not present - declarative act, but it has remained in hearts, in minds, in souls of people which hate Russia. (((
It's sad very much!(((
Russia cannot be weak. Everyone will easily swallow Russia. Her have already taken away on pieces and all world looked at it easy as though nothing occured in general!
This post was modified from its original form on 22 Oct, 14:09
and this is comment American boy on this video:
usafya (44 min. ago)
I too say %#&!*% YOU RUSSIA!!!))) Stop panicking Russkis, the whole world knows you are savage barbaric nation that is good only for invading neighboring countries, this movie will show your pig face to the world one more time))))
TEL AVIV, October 20 (RIA Novosti) - Israel and the United States will start large-scale joint air defense drills on Wednesday, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) reported Tuesday.
The Juniper Cobra 10 maneuvers, to involve 1,000 servicemen from each country, are being held for the fifth time. Despite recent tensions with Iran over its nuclear program, the IDF said the drills were "not a response to any world events."
Iran is suspected by the West of pursuing a secret nuclear weapons program, but says it needs nuclear power solely for civilian purposes.
The biennial exercises will take place in Israel until November 5.
Israeli media have said the U.S. Aegis, THAAD and Patriot air defense systems, as well as Israel's Arrow, will be employed in the drills.
www.rian.ru
MOSCOW, October 20 (RIA Novosti) - At least five people died and dozens were wounded on Tuesday when two suicide bombers blew themselves up in the Islamic University in Pakistan's capital, Islamabad.
The blasts went off with a five minute interval at the male and female campuses of the university, the Press Trust of India said.
The news agency quoted witnesses as saying a student and an employee of the university were killed in the first blast, while the second claimed three lives. According to the agency, over 40 people were wounded as the result of the attacks.
The Pakistani Dawn TV channel quoted the Interior Minister Rehman Malik as saying six people, including the two suicide bombers, died in the blasts.
The bombing followed a large-scale offensive by Pakistan's military against the Pakistan-based Taliban, which began on Saturday in the country's volatile South Waziristan province, near the Afghan border.
The assault comes after several days of regular militant attacks across the country, in which up to 150 people have died.
U.S. President Barack Obama signed legislation on Thursday providing Pakistan with $7.5 billion in aid over the next five years. Some of the funds are conditional on Pakistan fighting Taliban militants.
www.rian.ru
MOSCOW, October 20 (RIA Novosti) - Russian President Dmitry Medvedev will meet on October 20 with the Indian foreign minister, during the diplomat's visit to Moscow, the Kremlin said on Tuesday.
Somanahalli Mallaiah Krishna will be representing India at a Russian-Indian inter-governmental commission meeting on trade and economic, science and cultural cooperation, to be held on Wednesday as part of preparations for a bilateral summit.
The countries' leaders will be meeting in early December. During the summit, the countries are likely to extend their strategic and military partnership by signing a new military cooperation pact.
www.rian.ru
TBILISI, October 20 (RIA Novosti) - The United States will not establish military bases in Georgia but will help the country to modernize its defense system and integrate into NATO, a senior U.S. defense official said on Tuesday.
"We are working together with our Georgian friends on a long-term program of assistance to Georgia's efforts to carry out defense reforms and defense modernization, and to improve its candidacy as a prospective member of NATO," U.S. Assistant Secretary of Defense Alexander Vershbow told a news conference in Tbilisi.
He also said the United States has no plans to deploy missile defense elements in non-NATO countries.
"We are not consulting with any non-NATO countries and we do not envisage the placement of elements of our new architecture on the territory of non-NATO member states," he said.
Russia has expressed concern over U.S. missile defense plans involving countries outside NATO.
Vershbow previously said the United States was considering Ukraine as a possible site for a radar station as part of its new missile defense configuration in Europe, and Ukraine's ambassador to the United States, Oleh Shamshur, said on Thursday that the issue "is being discussed on the working level, at a preliminary stage."
President Viktor Yushchenko clarified the following day that no request has been received to host U.S. missile defense facilities, but that existing radar facilities could be "integrated into a European or global security system."
U.S. President Barack Obama in September scrapped plansto deploy a radar in the Czech Republic and interceptor missiles in Poland, due to a re-assessment of the threat from Iran. Moscow fiercely opposed the plans as a national security threat.
According to the Obama administration's new plan, land-based missile defense shields will not be implemented before 2015. Sea-based defenses will be operating in the Mediterranean up to 2015.
www.rian.ru
KABUL, October 20 (RIA Novosti) - Afghan President Hamid Karzai gave in to international pressure on Tuesday and agreed to take part in a second round of elections on November 7, election authorities said.
In agreeing to the November run-off against former Foreign Minister Abdullah Abdullah, Karzai accepted the findings of the UN-backed Electoral Complaints Commission's probe into the August 20 polls, the subject of wide-scale allegations of fraud.
The investigation determined that no candidate had received over 50% of the vote, the threshold for automatic victory. Karzai had claimed 54.6% of the vote in the first round.
"I call upon this country to take this as an opportunity to move the country forward and participate in a new round of elections," Karzai later said on national television.
Senator John Kerry, the head of the U.S. Senate's Foreign Relations Committee, who was present during the announcement, had reportedly earlier met with the 51-year-old Karzai at the presidential palace to persuade him to agree to new polls.
News on the second round of elections comes after an intense period of international diplomacy, with French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner arriving in Afghanistan on an unannounced visit on Saturday.
Karzai also held phone conversations with British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon, Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari and U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
"President Karzai's constructive actions established an important precedent for Afghanistan's new democracy," U.S. President Barack Obama said. "The Afghan Constitution and laws are strengthened by President Karzai's decision, which is in the best interests of the Afghan people."
Ban Ki-moon praised on Tuesday Karzai's willingness to compromise and his "full respect" for the war-ravaged country's constitution. The August polls were accompanied by nationwide attacks by Taliban militants, and the UN chief recognized in his comments that the run-off would be a "huge challenge."
www.rian.ru
PARIS, October 20 (RIA Novosti) - France will not pull out of uranium enrichment talks with Iran, despite the Islamic Republic's insistence that Paris's participation is unnecessary, a French Foreign Ministry spokesman said on Tuesday.
The Vienna talks were convened to discuss proposals for France and Russia to enrich uranium for Iran in order to ease international suspicions of a covert Iranian atomic weapons program. Iran already produces low-enriched uranium (up to the 5% level), but says it wants to buy higher-enriched fuel (up to 20%) for a research reactor in Tehran.
On Monday, however, Iranian state media said that Tehran had excluded France from a list of potential suppliers of highly-enriched uranium as Paris had not fulfilled "previous obligations regarding nuclear cooperation with Iran." On Tuesday, Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki said there was "no point" in France taking part in the talks.
"It is a meeting of experts, in which we are participating. The discussions are continuing," French Foreign Ministry spokesman Bernard Valero said. "There are many technical parameters to take into account for the supply of nuclear fuel and we will see later which states take part."
Mohamed ElBaradei, the head of the United Nations nuclear watchdog, said that Monday's talks between Iran the United States, France and Russia on a new uranium enrichment deal were off to a good start, but the second day of talks had been delayed.
Press TV said Western countries have proposed that Iran exchange its low-enriched uranium (LEU) for higher-enriched uranium, but that Iran wants to keep its LEU inside the country and buy the more highly-enriched fuel.
Iran is under three sets of UN Security Council sanctions over its refusal to halt uranium enrichment. The country recently admitted having a second uranium enrichment site in Qom, sparking international calls for harsher sanctions.
www.rian.ru
MOSCOW, October 17 (RIA Novosti) - U.S. authorities on Saturday extradited a Russian national wanted at home on charges of assault with intent to rob, Russia's Prosecutor General's Office said.
"Today, accompanied by members of the Russian office of Interpol, David Stepanyants was deported to Russia," a statement said.
Stepanyants, wanted in southern Russia's Astrakhan Region since 2000, was extradited at the request of the Russian authorities.
The 50-year-old Russian was placed on the international wanted list in 2002 and detained in the U.S. in March 2009 for the violation of immigration laws.
www.rian.ru
MOSCOW, October 17 (RIA Novosti) - Around a million people are estimated to have participated in an anti-abortion rally in Madrid on Saturday, Spanish media said.
Protestors were demonstrating against Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero's plans to relax the Catholic country's abortion laws. The proposed new law would allow abortion on demand during the first 14 weeks of a pregnancy.
The bill would also allow girls aged 16 and 17 to have abortions without their parents' knowledge.
The Every Life Matters march was attended by Catholic bishops and opposition party members.
Current Spanish law permits abortion in cases of rape and foetal abnormality. Pregnancies can also be terminated if there is a risk to a woman's physical or psychological health. Some 100,000 abortions are currently carried out in Spain every year, most of them justified with reference to the latter provision.
www.rian.ru
WORLD
* The U.S. Department of State has granted a senior North Korean government official and his delegation permission to attend two international conferences in the United States
* French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner arrived in Afghanistan on an unannounced visit
* Around a million people are estimated to have participated in an anti-abortion rally in Madrid
* Brazilian drug dealers shot dead the pilot of a police helicopter in Rio de Janeiro, causing it to crash to the ground and explode
* Film director Roman Polanski, arrested in Switzerland last month on child abuse charges, has been admitted to hospital, the Blick newspaper said
* Three U.S. soldiers have died in two separate incidents in Afghanistan, an International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) spokesperson said
* Pakistan forces began an offensive against Taliban militants in the country's South Waziristan area.
* Talks on a post-coup crisis in Honduras have reached deadlock with the de facto Honduran president refusing to reinstate ousted President Manuel Zelaya, the former Honduran foreign minister has said
* At least 32 people were killed and 10 injured in an explosion following a fire at a firework shop in southern India
RUSSIA
* Title holders Rubin went four points clear at the top of the Russian Premier League after a comfortable win over bottom-placed Khimki
* Russian President Dmitry Medvedev's visit to Belgrade on October 20 will help deepen Russian-Serbian ties, Serbia's president has said
* President Dmitry Medvedev has vowed Russia's closer cooperation with an alliance of Latin American and Caribbean countries
* A two-year-old girl missing in south Russia for 20 hours was found safe in a pit
BEIJING, October 18 (RIA Novosti) - Chinese authorities have started resettling 330,000 people in central China in a project to divert water from its major rivers in the south to the country's north, official news agency Xinhua reported on Sunday.
People in Hubei and Henan provinces are being relocated from their homes near the Danjiangkou reservoir where a sluice will be built to divert water from the Yangtze River to thirsty north China regions, including the country's capital, Beijing, the agency said.
The $60 billion project, which was approved in 2002, will see billions of tons of water moving from China's central, western and southern areas to the country's parched north through pipes and man-made canals.
The project is the country's second largest resettlement plan following a similar move to pave way for the Three Gorges hydropower project, which resettled 1.3 million people and lasted 17 years.
www.rian.ru
NEW YORK, October 18 (RIA Novosti) - One of America's wealthiest men charged as part of an insider-trading case surfaced in a separate probe into allegedly raising funds for a Sri Lankan terrorist group, The Wall Street Journal reported on Sunday.
Federal agents uncovered documents showing that Raj Rajaratnam, a portfolio manager for Galleon Group, a hedge fund with assets worth up to $7 billion under management, was among several wealthy Sri Lankans in the U.S. whose donations to a Maryland-based charity made their way to the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, the paper said, citing people familiar with the probe.
The Tamil Tiger terrorist group fought a brutal separatist war against the Sri Lankan government for three decades until it was defeated in May, the paper said.
Rajaratnam, 52, with his wealth estimated at $1.5 billion, was among six people arrested Friday in what the Federal Bureau of Investigation said is the largest-ever, hedge-fund insider-trading case, the paper reported.
Federal prosecutors charged Rajaratnam with securities fraud and conspiracy to commit securities fraud. Prosecutors allege Rajaratnam and his ring of alleged co-conspirators earned $20 million in improper gains.
www.rian.ru
MOSCOW, October 17 (RIA Novosti) - An Iranian court has released on a $300,000 bail a Newsweek journalist with dual Iranian-Canadian citizenship, arrested in the wake of the disputed presidential elections in June, Iranian media said.
Maziar Bahari, 42, who worked as a Newsweek reporter since 1998, was arrested on June 21 during the post-vote protests in Tehran "for his role in instigating events occurred after the presidential election," the Press TV said.
"Bahari was released on 3 billion rials ($300,000) bail from Evin prison on Saturday night," the semi-official Islamic Labor News Agency said citing a judiciary source.
Bahari has admitted to giving "false and biased" reports about the contested June 12 re-election of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, IRNA said.
Newsweek said, however, that the journalist "has been accredited to the magazine in Iran for over a decade, and in that time had established a solid reputation for balanced reporting."
Ahmadinejad's re-election triggered mass protests by supporters of the defeated candidate Mir-Hossein Mousavi's, in which at least 27 people were killed. About 4,000 people were arrested in Iran's most severe unrest since the 1979 Islamic Revolution, some 300 of them still remain in prison.
www.rian.ru
Hamas to respond to Palestinian reconciliation plan on Sunday
CAIRO, October 18 (RIA Novosti) - A delegation of the Islamist movement Hamas will pay a visit to Egypt on Sunday to submit its final response on the Egypt-brokered reconciliation pact, a senior Hamas member told the MENA news agency.
In early September, Cairo put forward a new document to reconcile the two largest Palestinian factions, Hamas and Fatah, which split in June 2007 when Hamas took control of the Gaza Strip and pushed the Fatah movement out of the enclave. The six previous rounds of reconciliation talks had resulted in failure.
"The delegation will be led by deputy head of Hamas' political bureau, Moussa Abu Marzuk," Salah Bardawil said.
Ahmed Yousef, a Hamas deputy foreign minister, said the response came after lengthy internal consultations.
"Hamas has never opposed the Egyptian document, but the movement needed additional time to clarify some paragraphs," he said.
The document envisions general elections to be held in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank in the first half of 2010, a reform of Palestinian security services under the Egyptian control and the release of political prisoners by both factions.
Local Palestinian and some Western media reports said on Wednesday that Fatah already signed the reconciliation pact, while Hamas asked for a delay in the signing of the document.
Armed clashes between Fatah and Hamas came some 18 months after Hamas had won Palestinian parliamentary elections in 2006. Fatah has renounced violence, while Hamas refuses to recognize Israel and reserves the right to use violence in its struggle to create a Palestinian state.
Reconciliation talks resumed after Israel's assault on Gaza at the turn of the year, which saw some 1,300 Palestinians killed and 5,000 injured.
www.rian.ru
