* Russian President Vladimir Putin will visit South Africa on September 5-6 and Morocco on September 6-7, the Kremlin press service said
* The leaders of the Party of Life, Rodina (Motherland) and the Party of Pensioners said their forces would merge to fight next year's parliamentary elections
* A total of 864 militants were killed and 708 terrorist attacks prevented in the North Caucasus since September 1, 2003, Russia's National Anti-Terrorist Committee said
* Estonia's parliament failed to elect a president in the second and third rounds of voting Tuesday
* Iran would like to see Russia as a principal bidder in a tender for the construction of two new nuclear power plants, a spokesman for Iran's Nuclear Energy Organization said
* Net capital inflow into Russia is expected to reach roughly $7 billion in 2006, a banking source said
* Russia could lose trade privileges with the United States it enjoys under a preferential treatment program for emerging economies, the Economic Development and Trade Ministry said
* Gazprom and Germany's E.ON Ruhrgas AG signed an agreement to prolong the existing contracts on Russian natural gas supplies via the German-Czech border for 15 years from 2020 to 2035, the Russian energy giant's press service said
* Belarus plans to evaluate the cost of its leading pipeline company, Beltransgaz, which is being sought by Russia's state-run energy giant Gazprom, in October, the country's first deputy prime minister said
* Russia's Supreme Court of Arbitration stopped proceedings in the case concerning the illegality of tax claims against Surgutneftegaz, worth 1.17 billion rubles ($43.7 million)
* The Moscow Arbitration Court of Appeals will consider September 19 a motion by the Yukos Oil Company against a ruling on its bankruptcy, the court's press service said
* Russia plans to orbit at least 30 telecom satellites and launch probes to Mars and Venus under the federal space program for 2006-2015, a Russian Space Agency official said
