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Main news of January 31

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RUSSIA * The Russian Foreign Ministry has no information to confirm or deny Serb media reports alleging that asylum had been granted to the family of former... 31.01.2008, Sputnik International

2008-01-31T19:22+0000

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Main news of January 31

19:22 GMT 31.01.2008

RUSSIA

* The Russian Foreign Ministry has no information to confirm or deny Serb media reports alleging that asylum had been granted to the family of former Yugoslav leader Slobodan Milosevic

* Russia's Finance Ministry divided the Stabilization Fund, set up to accrue surplus revenue from high world oil prices, into the Reserve Fund and the National Prosperity Fund

* The state-run VTsIOM opinion center forecast that Dmitry Medvedev, a first deputy prime minister and a presidential runner, will receive 74.8% of the vote in the March 2 elections

* Former Yukos executive Vasily Aleksanyan, being held in custody in Moscow, has been diagnosed with both AIDS and cancer, his lawyers announced

* Jailed ex-Yukos CEO Mikhail Khodorkovsky continued his hunger strike with no water, demanding that his former colleague Vasily Aleksanyan, diagnosed with AIDS, receive urgent medical treatment

* Russia's Supreme Court turned down an appeal by Alexei Pichugin, a former Yukos security chief, against his life prison sentence for murder

WORLD

* Former New York mayor and Republican candidate, Rudy Giuliani, officially pulled out of the U.S. presidential race after coming a disappointing third in Florida primaries

* Cuban leader Fidel Castro polled 98.2% of the votes in National Assembly elections January 20, just 1% less than his brother and acting president Raul with 99.3%, official election results reported

* The George W. Bush administration has changed its stance on the START-1 nuclear arms reduction treaty, and will agree to Russia's demands for a legally binding replacement, Republican Senator Richard Lugar said

* The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe may refuse to monitor Russian presidential polls due to restrictions, a spokesman for the OSCE's election-monitoring arm told a national daily

* A South Korean unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) used to monitor North Korean troop movements crashed near the heavily fortified inter-Korean border, national television said

* Two blasts at an unlicensed fireworks factory in Istanbul left 20 people dead and 117 injured, national media reported* Three people were killed and two injured in a suicide car bomb attack near an army vehicle in the centre of Afghanistan's capital Kabul

* Georgia's new Cabinet, formed after early presidential polls on January 5, was approved by parliament in a unanimous vote of confidence

* At least six people including a senior official were killed in a suicide bomb explosion in Afghanistan's southwestern Helmand province, local security services said

* Latvia's former vice-consul Peteris Podvinskis, expelled from Russia last week in a tit-for-tat move, will work at Latvia's Embassy in the United States, the Baltic state's Foreign Minister Maris Riekstins said

* Human Rights Watch said that Western democracies are failing to put pressure on Russia over what the U.S.-based NGO sees as human rights violations

BUSINESS

* Russia's GDP growth reached 8.1.% in 2007, First Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev said citing the national statistics service

* Russia's anti-monopoly watchdog said it had allowed aluminum giant UC RusAl to buy a stake of 29% plus 1 voting share in Norilsk Nickel

* Severstal, a leading Russian steel producer, said it had signed a $650 mln deal with Arcelor Mittal to sell two west Siberian coalmines to the world's largest steel company

* The Sukhoi aircraft maker is holding talks with potential buyers to sell 150 new Sukhoi SuperJet-100 aircraft, the company general director, Mikhail Pogosyan, said

* Russian truck producer KamAZ plans to invest at least $1.5 billion in development in 2008-2012, the company's general director said