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Main news of September 24

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RUSSIA * Russian President Vladimir Putin announced Russia's new Cabinet, including new ministers of health, economics, and regional development * Russian... 24.09.2007, Sputnik International

2007-09-24T18:40+0000

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Main news of September 24

18:40 GMT 24.09.2007

RUSSIA

* Russian President Vladimir Putin announced Russia's new Cabinet, including new ministers of health, economics, and regional development

* Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said:

- Russian arms sales to Syria do not disturb the balance of forces in the Middle East

- Russia hopes NATO member states will take part in Russia's initiative to set up a non-strategic missile defense system for Europe

* Foreign ministers from six nations could discuss the ongoing North Korean nuclear problem in the second half of October, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Losyukov said

* Russia is worried by the "degradation" of the military-political situation in Afghanistan amid an ongoing rise in extremism and drug production, a senior Foreign Ministry official said

* Two U.S. battleships arrived in Russia's Far East port of Vladivostok to participate in a joint exercise with the Russian Navy

* A new lawyer was assigned to Alexander Pichushkin, charged with 49 murders and three attempted murders

* The Moscow District Military Court upheld an arrest warrant for an Audit Chamber employee who was earlier detained on suspicion of receiving a 1 million euro ($1.4 million) bribe

* The Moscow City Court upheld an arrest warrant for fugitive Russian tycoon Boris Berezovsky on charges of embezzling $13 million from SBS-Agro Bank

* Dutch architect Erick van Egeraat has designed a Russia-shaped luxury island to be created in the Black Sea near Sochi by 2014, when the city hosts the Winter Olympics, his Moscow office said

WORLD

* Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Monday that possession of nuclear weapons plays no role in the modern world, the Iranian news agency IRNA reported

* Cuban President Fidel Castro met with the president of Angola in his first official meeting for three and half months, said a government press release

* A planned visit by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to New York's Columbia University met with a storm of protests

* The Russian-Indian joint venture BrahMos will complete work on a new hypersonic missile in five to seven years' time, an Indian defense official said

* Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has decided that the country should live by "Venezuelan time," moving the clocks back by half an hour as of Monday

* UN experts have arrived in Iran for talks on the Islamic Republic's controversial uranium enrichment activities, the Iranian Students' News Agency (ISNA) said

* The European Union is urging a speedy investigation of the deadly attack in the centre of Kosovo's capital, Pristina, early Monday, an EU spokeswoman said

BUSINESS

* The Russian Federal Tax Service will soon establish a trans-regional tax service for inspections of the country's top businessmen, a source in the tax service said

* Russia's first venture capital fund, VTB Venture Fund, has been set up now that its assets have reached the target of 3 billion rubles ($120 million), the company's largest shareholder said

* Interros said it had closed a deal to sell a 30.4% stake in heavy machinery manufacturer Power Machines to Cyprus-based Highstat Ltd., controlled by steel tycoon Alexei Mordashov

* The United Arab Emirates is set to reduce crude production by almost a quarter in November due to planned oil well maintenance work, a local newspaper said