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Main news of September 19

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RUSSIA * Russia's acting Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov met with his Iraqi counterpart, Hishiar al-Zibari, to discuss stability in the war-torn country and... 19.09.2007, Sputnik International

2007-09-19T18:31+0000

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Main news of September 19

18:31 GMT 19.09.2007

RUSSIA

* Russia's acting Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov met with his Iraqi counterpart, Hishiar al-Zibari, to discuss stability in the war-torn country and contracts for Russian companies

* Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Kislyak said:

- Russia and the United States have failed to make progress during two rounds of consultations on the deployment of U.S. missile defense elements in Europe

- Russia could lift its moratorium on the Treaty on Conventional Armed Forces in Europe (CFE) if NATO countries ratify the amended version of the document

* The Angara space launch vehicle's first stage of firing tests will take place in 2008, the Khrunichev State Research and Production Center said

* The Russian Foreign Ministry said The International Religious Freedom Report 2007, released by the U.S. State Department September 14, is prejudiced

* Russia will not scale up armaments for the duration of a moratorium on the Conventional Armed Forces in Europe (CFE) treaty, a senior Defense Ministry official said

* Two police officers have died after coming under fire in Nazran, the largest city in Russia's North Caucasus republic of Ingushetia, a local prosecutor spokesman said

* A Moscow court upheld a new probe against imprisoned Yukos founder Mikhail Khodorkovsky

* The Moscow City Court upheld the freezing of 17 million rubles ($670,000) belonging to a former banker Alexei Frenkel, a suspect in the murder of a top banking regulator

WORLD

* Anti-Syrian Lebanese lawmaker Antoine Ghanem and at least five other people were killed in car bomb explosion in Sin al-Fil, an eastern suburb of Beirut on Wednesday, the LBC news channel reported

* Israel's security cabinet declared the Gaza Strip "an enemy entity", and voted to toughen sanctions against the Palestinian enclave

* Iran has drawn up plans for retaliation in the event of an attack from Israel, the deputy commander of the Iranian Air Force was reported by Fars news agency as saying

* Iraqi authorities arrested a suspect in connection with the murder of five Russian diplomats in June last year, Foreign Minister Hishiar al-Zibari said

* Islamist group Hamas believes that if the upcoming U.S.-proposed peace conference on the Middle East fails, a new rebellion could start, the Palestinian Information Center news portal reported

* Typhoon Wipha hit China's east coast near Shanghai in the early hours of Wednesday, killing one and injuring three others, toppling hundreds of homes, and damaging power and water supplies

* Torrential rains that have battered Africa threaten to give rise to a grave humanitarian situation, the Untied Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs warned in a report

* China successfully launched the third earth observation satellite jointly developed with Brazil, China's Xinhua news agency reported

* Kyrgyz President Kurmanbek Bakiyev said he had signed a decree to call a referendum on amending the country's Constitution on October 21

* Estonia may restore the former borders of its territorial waters in order to dictate terms over the construction of a trans-Baltic natural gas pipeline, the country's media said

BUSINESS

* Gazprom is ready for constructive discussions on Russia's reliability as an energy supplier to Europe, the Russian gas giant's press secretary said

* The UN and World Bank Stolen Asset Recovery (StAR) initiative may enable Russia to recover up to $200 billion in stolen assets, a high-ranking Russian diplomat said

* Alexander Korsik, the former head of independent Russian natural gas producer Itera, has been appointed board chairman at RussNeft, the oil company said

* Gazprom Neft, Russian gas giant Gazprom's oil division, said it was set to secure a three-year syndicated loan worth up to $2.2 billion to expand production and refining