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Main news of August 29

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RUSSIA * Russia will be forced to shut its embassy in Tbilisi following Georgia's announcement that it is severing diplomatic ties with Moscow, a Foreign... 29.08.2008, Sputnik International

2008-08-29T18:06+0000

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Main news of August 29

18:06 GMT 29.08.2008

RUSSIA

* Russia will be forced to shut its embassy in Tbilisi following Georgia's announcement that it is severing diplomatic ties with Moscow, a Foreign Ministry source said

* Russia is seeking to continue dialogue with the U.S. on issues relating to a new strategic arms treaty and missile defense, a Foreign Ministry spokesman said

* Russian tennis star Maria Sharapova said on Friday that doctors were to blame for giving her an incorrect diagnosis, which deprived her of a chance to play in the U.S. Open and Beijing Olympics

* Russia dismissed on Friday media reports claiming the country plans to cut oil supplies to Europe amid growing tensions over the Georgia conflict, calling them nonsense

* A delegation from Russian nuclear power construction company Atomstroyexport will discuss the completion of the Bushehr nuclear power plant in Iran on September 1, a company spokesman said

* Russia's Black Sea Fleet may eventually use the Abkhazian port of Sukhumi as a naval base, former fleet commander said

* Russia's Foreign Ministry rejected on Friday accusations from the other G8 members that Moscow has violated a peace deal brokered by France to end the recent conflict with Georgia

* Russia's Nikolai "The Russian Giant" Valuev was 40 kg (88.2 lbs) heavier than his opponent, Puerto Rican-American, John Ruiz, in the pre-bout weigh-in ahead of Saturday's WBA heavyweight title fight

* Quarantine has been declared in a village in the Russian republic of Bashkortostan in the southwest Urals after several humans were infected with anthrax, a spokesman for the consumer rights regulator said

* Russia's Black Sea Fleet is capable of destroying NATO's naval strike group currently deployed in the sea within 20 minutes, a former fleet commander said

* Russia's agricultural regulator said on Friday that 19 U.S. poultry companies will be banned from exporting their products to Russia as of September 1 due to sanitary concerns

* Russia has launched a constellation of five remote Earth sensing satellites from the Baikonur space center in Kazakhstan, the federal space agency

* Russia has accused the UN Security Council of having double standards over South Ossetia and Abkhazia, and of lacking understanding of the conflicts in the separatist Georgian regions

* A Russian Interior Ministry officer was killed in Chechnya's capital when an unknown gunman shot him in the back, a police source in the North Caucasus republic said

WORLD

* Georgian Prime Minister Vladimir Gurgenidze has signed an instruction for Georgia to withdraw from all peacekeeping agreements within the Commonwealth of Independent States and with Russia

* In a recent opinion poll carried out in Germany, 56% of Germans said they were against Georgia joining NATO, the pollster said

* Tajikistan has agreed to allow the Russian military to use an airport in the western city of Gissar, Russia's president said

* The recent Georgian-South Ossetian conflict will lead to a buildup of NATO forces near Belarusian borders, the country's president said

* The Ukrainian Defense Ministry categorically denied on Friday that Ukrainian military experts are helping to rebuild Georgia's army communications network, damaged in a five-day conflict with Russia

* Russia believes it is essential to maintain diplomatic relations with Georgia, a Foreign Ministry spokesman said

* The Kuwaiti education ministry has banned schools pupils from bringing exercise books and other school items, decorated with photos of soap stars to classes, local media said

* At least two people were killed and 16 others injured in a series of explosions at a gunpowder factory in central Turkey, local TV said

* Russia and South Ossetia will on Tuesday sign an agreement on friendship and cooperation, which will stipulate the deployment of a Russian military base in the republic, a South Ossetian official said

* Two leading galleries in Britain are trying to unite efforts to keep the works by Italian Renaissance artist Titian for the nation, they said in a statement

* A Moscow court has ruled to annul the second marriage of the late Georgian tycoon Badri Patarkatsishvili to a Russian woman, a lawyer for the tycoon's widow said

* Cuba has evacuated over 33,000 people from its eastern provinces as hurricane Gustav approaches the country from the Caribbean, the Presna Latina news agency quoted emergency officials as saying

* Former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic is expected to enter pleas Friday at the UN tribunal for the former Yugoslavia on 11 charges, including war crimes and genocide

BUSINESS

* Russia's largest bank Sberbank could take up to $1.2 billion of a three-year syndicated loan in September, a banking source said

* Shareholders at a leading European tire producer, Amtel-Vredestein N.V., gave the go ahead during a shareholder meeting on Friday for a merger with Sibur-Russian Tyres

* Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC), the country's largest, plans to buy 100% of Russia's RosEuroBank for a reported $800-$850 million, a Russian business daily said Friday citing banking sources

* Rosneft [RTS: ROSN], Russia's largest oil company, reported Friday a 15.5% increase in daily crude output to 2.1 mln bbl of oil in the first half of 2008 from 1.8 mln bbl in January-June 2007

* Russia's largest oil company, Rosneft, said Friday its U.S. GAAP net profit for the first half of 2008 was $6.876 billion, a year-on-year increase of 187%

* LUKoil Group cut oil production 3.1% year-on-year and increased natural gas output 19.5% in the first half of 2008, Russia's largest independent oil producer said in a statement

* Evraz Group increased its net profit calculated to International Financial Reporting Standards by 82.1% year-on-year in the first half of 2008 to $2.04 billion, Russia's largest steelmaker said

* LUKoil's net profit calculated to U.S. GAAP rose 91.1% year-on-year in the first half of 2008 to $7.29 billion, Russia's largest independent oil producer said