2007 Review: November

RIA Novosti looks back at the main events of the outgoing year; below the month-by-month review of 2006 continues, with November

November 2

* Legendary Russian folk dance choreographer Igor Moiseyev dies of heart failure at the age of 101

November 6

* Russian energy giant Gazprom signs a deal with Gasunie, giving the Dutch natural gas transportation company 9% in the Nord Stream pipeline being built under the Baltic Sea

November 8

* Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili announces early presidential elections for January 5, 2008, to be held along with a simultaneous referendum on parliamentary elections, following massive opposition protests in Tbilisi

* A massive oil and gas deposit is discovered in Brazil, which could make the Latin American country one of the world's leading hydrocarbon producers

November 9

* Polish President Lech Kaczynski nominates Donald Tusk as the country's prime minister and asks him to form a government

November 11

* About 2,000 metric tons of oil, and almost 7,000 tons of sulfur in containers spill into the sea amid a powerful storm in the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov that kills at least six sailors, sinks four ships and splits open an oil tanker

November 12

* The Moscow Arbitration Court ends the liquidation process of oil company Yukos on a request from the bankruptcy receiver

November 13

* Vitaly Kaloyev, a Russian national jailed in Switzerland for killing an air traffic controller he blamed for the death of his family, arrives in Moscow following his early release

November 15

* Venezuela's president Hugo Chavez says his country would pursue a peaceful nuclear program

November 17

* Russia's Deputy Finance Minister Sergei Storchak and two businessmen are arrested on suspicion of attempted large-scale fraud

November 18

* At least 101 miners are killed after a methane explosion in the Zasyadko coalmine in eastern Ukraine

November 19

* The British Queen Elizabeth II and her husband, Prince Philip, mark their diamond 60th wedding anniversary with a service in London's Westminster Abbey

November 20

* ASEAN leaders sign a historic charter, which changes the 10-nation bloc into a rules-based legal association

November 21

* Russia qualifies for Euro 2008 as Croatia beats England in Group E and Russia earns the slenderest of victories in Andorra

November 22

* Russian energy giant Gazprom and Italy's Eni S.p.A. sign a deal to build the South Stream gas pipeline that will run under the Black Sea from Russia to the European Union

November 23

* Commonwealth of Nations suspends Pakistan's membership in the organization over its failure to lift a state of emergency

November 24

* Georgia's President Mikheil Saakashvili steps down from his post as he braces himself for early elections in January following mass street protests earlier in the month

November 26

* Russia's upper house of parliament, the Federation Council, officially announces presidential elections for March 2, 2008

November 27

* During the U.S.-sponsored Mideast peace conference in Annapolis, Israeli and Palestinian leaders agree to resume talks aimed at making progress toward the creation of an independent Palestinian state

November 28

* Shareholders of Russia's largest savings bank Sberbank elect former economics minister German Gref as chief executive officer

November 29

* Pervez Musharraf is sworn in for a second presidential term in Pakistan as a civilian leader, a day after he steps down as military commander

November 30

* President Vladimir Putin signs a law on the temporary suspension of Russia's participation in the Conventional Forces in Europe (CFE) Treaty

* Turkey's government authorizes the military to conduct a cross-border operation against Kurdish separatists in northern Iraq