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Main news of August 8

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08.08.2007, Sputnik International

2007-08-08T18:03+0000

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Main news of August 8

18:03 GMT 08.08.2007

RUSSIA

* Russia's strategic aviation started an active phase of military exercises to fly over the North Pole and conduct test launches of cruise missiles, an Air Force spokesman said

* Russia is developing a fifth-generation air defense missile system that is superior to S-400 Triumf complex and capable of hitting targets in space, the Air Force commander said

* Russian-U.S. joint venture International Launch Services signed a contract with London-based mobile satellite telecommunications operator Inmarsat to launch an Inmarsat-4 satellite by April 2008, Russia's space agency said

* Studying the geological samples taken from the North Pole seabed during Russia's symbolic expedition last week could take six months, a Russian Academy of Sciences spokesman said

* The Russian Embassy in Nigeria confirmed the release of six Russian employees of the RusAl company, abducted in Nigeria on June 3

WORLD

* Israeli troops killed two Palestinian gunmen during a patrol in the Gaza Strip, the army press service said

* North and South Korea will hold their second-ever summit in Pyongyang on August 28-30, Seoul's presidential administration and the North's official news agency reported

* NASA space shuttle Endeavour will be launched to the International Space Station from Cape Canaveral at 6:36 p.m. local time (10:36 p.m. GMT), a NASA spokesman said

* North Korea is ready to disable its nuclear facilities before receiving aid pledged as part of international efforts to denuclearize the country, the South Korean Yonhap news agency said

* South Ossetian intelligence has proof that a military plane, which allegedly violated its airspace on Tuesday, is in service with the Georgian Air Force, said Dmitry Medoyev, the self-proclaimed republic's envoy to Russia

* The president of the unrecognized republic of South Ossetia, Eduard Kokoity, said he was ready to meet with Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili to sign a memorandum on the non-use of force

BUSINESS

* Belarus repaid all of its natural gas debt to Russia, a spokesman for energy giant Gazprom said

* Russia's state-controlled Rosneft bought bankrupt oil company Yukos's transport assets and subsidiaries in ex-Soviet states at a liquidation auction for 18.6 billion rubles (over $730 million)

* LUKoil, Russia's largest independent oil producer, said its crude production gained 3.5% year-on-year in the first half of 2007, to 48.3 million metric tons (354 mln bbl)

* Investigators from Russia's Interior Ministry said they had seized on a court order 100% of private oil group RussNeft's securities

* A Moscow court extended the custody of an executive vice president of bankrupt Russian oil company Yukos, Vasily Aleksanyan, charged with embezzlement and money laundering, until December 2, a court spokeswoman said

* Wholesale generating company WGC-3 said its net income calculated to International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) increased 390%, year-on-year, in 2006 to 4.4 billion rubles (about $173 million)

* Iraqi Oil Minister Hussain al-Shahristani said on arriving in Moscow:

- all contracts concluded by foreign oil companies with Saddam Hussein's regime and the Kurdistan authorities would be reviewed in line with Iraq's new legislation

- Russian crude producers, including LUKoil, would have to compete on equal terms with other companies in the oil-rich country