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Main news of December 10

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RUSSIA * Russia's Vladimir Putin backed his longtime ally, First Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev, as candidate for Russian president in elections due... 10.12.2007, Sputnik International

2007-12-10T19:11+0000

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Main news of December 10

19:11 GMT 10.12.2007

RUSSIA

* Russia's Vladimir Putin backed his longtime ally, First Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev, as candidate for Russian president in elections due on March 2

* Russia will complete by 2010 the development of a dual-purpose integrated automated radar system, which will eventually become a global air and space surveillance network, a senior Air Force official said

* State-run arms exporter Rosoboronexport is negotiating with India over deliveries of Russia's Mi-17 multirole military helicopters, the general director of the Moscow Mil helicopter plant said

* Rosatom has completed the removal of spent fuel from the Nuclear Research Institute in the Czech town of Rez, the press service of the Russian nuclear power corporation said

* Prosecutors are investigating Sunday's bus explosion in southern Russia, which killed two and injured nine, as a possible terrorist attack, law enforcement officials said

* A planned rotation of Russian peacekeepers' units in the Georgian-Abkhaz conflict zone is over, an aide to the CIS joint peacekeeping forces commander said

* Oleg Mitvol, deputy head of Russia's environmental watchdog, imposed a five-day ban on the dumping of waste into Lake Baikal from a pulp mill

WORLD

* An Hamas official urged the U.S. to enter into dialogue with the Palestinian Islamist group, which currently controls the Gaza Strip, the Jerusalem Post reported

* Russia will contest any unilateral declaration of independence by Kosovo in circumvention of the United Nations, Russia's envoy to the troika of international mediators said

* At least 53 people drowned when a boat carrying illegal migrants sank off Turkey's west coast in the Aegean Sea two days ago, the national NTV channel reported

* The clean-up operation in the aftermath of South Korea's worst-ever oil spill is expected to last "at least two months", the Yonhap news agency said, citing the country's maritime minister

* Iran has never sought and will never attempt to create nuclear weapons despite allegations from some Western countries, the Iranian defense minister said

* The Turkish government is planning to launch a new amnesty program for Kurdish militants in northern Iraq, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said

* There has been a new outbreak of H5N1 bird flu in eastern Poland, the country's agricultural minister said

* Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi started a five-day official visit to France, a spokesman for the Elysee Palace said

* At least 43 people died when a boat carrying illegal migrants sank off Turkey's west coast in the Aegean Sea two days ago, national TV reported

* Rough weather conditions may have caused the crash of a Czech airliner near Zhulyany airport in Ukraine on Sunday in which five people died, a top Ukrainian aviation official said

* Egyptian police discovered a cache containing 500 kg of explosives in the north of the Sinai Peninsula near the border with the Gaza Strip, MENA news agency reported

BUSINESS

* Belarus will receive around $900 million from oil production in Venezuela next year, the Belarusian foreign minister said

* Russia's government has approved a Caspian gas pipeline cooperation agreement with Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan, a senior government official

* Net capital inflow in Russia exceeded $3 billion in November 2007, Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin said

* The Evraz Group and its wholly-owned subsidiary Titan Acquisition Sub. Inc. said they had signed a deal to acquire U.S.-based Claymont Steel for $564.8 million

* Russia's GDP grew 7.8% in January-September 2007, the country's top statistics body said

* Russian-Chinese trade in 2007 will exceed $40 billion, a Russian senator said