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Main news of December 11

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RUSSIA * Russian President Dmitry Medvedev refused to rule out on Thursday the possibility of Russia joining OPEC, and also said the country may cut oil... 11.12.2008, Sputnik International

2008-12-11T19:00+0000

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Main news of December 11

19:00 GMT 11.12.2008

RUSSIA

* Russian President Dmitry Medvedev refused to rule out on Thursday the possibility of Russia joining OPEC, and also said the country may cut oil production to regulate prices

* Russian President Dmitry Medvedev spoke on Thursday of the importance of supporting Russian manufacturers

* Russian prosecutors on Thursday finished making their case against three men accused in the 2006 murder of investigative journalist Anna Politkovskaya, a prosecutor said

* Russian swimmers set a new world record in the 4 x 50 m medley on Thursday at the opening of the European Short-Course Championships in Rijeka, Croatia

* A Russian lawmaker and a presidential envoy on Arctic and Antarctic international cooperation said on Thursday that Russia would not cede its right to Arctic shelf exploration to any other state

* A Russian mobile advertising firm has registered the smiley emoticon as its trademark and will sue companies that do not pay for the right to use the image, a Russian business daily said

* Drug police have seized 133 kilograms (293 lbs) of heroin from three drug dealers in the West Siberian city of Omsk, a spokeswoman for the Russian Drug Control Service said

* Four children died on Thursday in a house fire in the village of Chinek in Russia's northeastern Siberian Republic of Yakutia, a source in the republic's emergencies ministry said

* Russia's envoy to the OSCE said on Thursday that Georgia's decision to cut off natural gas supplies to South Ossetia was an attempt to put pressure on the breakaway republic recognized by Russia as an independent state

* Fifteen boats, including 10 foreign vessels, have been detained by Russia in the Bering Sea and the Sea of Okhotsk since October for poaching crab, a regional coast guard chief said

* Rescuers have discovered a fourth body in the rubble of a residential building in central Moscow that partially collapsed while under reconstruction on Wednesday, police said

WORLD

* A court in Greece has given a 20-year-old man labeled one of the instigators of the riots that have shaken the country for the past week a one-year suspended sentence, the Athens news agency said

* The main Serbian opponent of an agreement to sell Russian energy giant Gazprom's oil arm 51% of Serbia's state-owned NIS for $528 million is resigning as head of the working group dealing with the contract

* North Korean leader Kim Jong-il had a stroke, but did not undergo surgery and is now feeling better, the French doctor who treated him in Pyongyang said

* Verification of North Korea's nuclear program should be in line with UN nuclear watchdog standards and the nonproliferation regime, the head of the Russian delegation at six-party talks said

* One person was killed and 12 injured in a fire that broke out at a market in the Georgian capital of Tbilisi on Thursday, Imedi TV said

* Russia's foreign minister said on Thursday during a TV interview that he was certain that Hillary Clinton would be easier for Russia to work with than her predecessor, Condoleezza Rice

* Estonia's parliament approved amendments to the national election law on Thursday allowing people to vote by mobile telephones in an effort to boost voter activity

* At least 670 Kurdish militants have been killed by Turkish forces in counter-terrorism operations this year, the country's General Staff said

* Four days of international negotiations in Beijing on North Korea's denuclearization process ended on Thursday with no deal reached

* A former Chechen separatist field commander has been killed in Istanbul, Turkish media reported

* Over 15,000 people have been forced to flee their homes in the province of Aceh, on the northern tip of Indonesia's Sumatra island, regional media reported

* Two police officers will be held in jail pending trial over the killing of a teenage boy in Athens last Saturday, which sparked ongoing nationwide riots, national media cited prosecutors as saying

* A U.S. court has ruled that a Russian-born millionaire businessman charged in the U.S. with organizing a child prostitution ring in his homeland be put under house arrest

* At least two coal miners were killed and another three injured in a 5.0-magnitude earthquake that hit southwest China's Sichuan Province on Wednesday, Xinhua reported

BUSINESS

* Gazprom's CEO has warned Ukraine that delays in repaying its debt for Russian natural gas deliveries could have serious negative consequences, the Russian energy giant said

* Gazprom has decided to lower its bid to purchase the Kovykta gas condensate deposit in East Siberia from the Russian-British oil company TNK-BP, a Russian business paper reported

* Russia's largest independent crude producer LUKoil said on Thursday its U.S. GAAP unaudited net income grew 70% year-on-year in January-September to $10.77 billion

* Russia's international reserves stood at $437 billion as of December 5, down $17.9 billion against $454.9 billion on November 28, the Central Bank said