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Main news of February 16

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RUSSIA * Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has signed decrees to replace four governors and named their replacements, the Kremlin said * State defense... 16.02.2009, Sputnik International

2009-02-16T19:15+0000

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Main news of February 16

19:15 GMT 16.02.2009

RUSSIA

* Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has signed decrees to replace four governors and named their replacements, the Kremlin said

* State defense contracts will not be subject to cuts this year despite the ongoing financial crisis, Russia's deputy defense minister, Lyubov Kudelina, said

* Heavy snowfalls in Moscow and the surrounding Moscow Region caused more than 6,000 traffic accidents over the weekend, which resulted in 24 deaths, local traffic police said

* One police officer was killed and another wounded in a car chase in Russia's North Caucasus republic of Daghestan, a police spokesman said

* One militant has been killed and two others injured after police in Russia's North Caucasus Republic of Daghestan opened fire on their car, a local police spokesman said

* Russian prosecutors have given the go ahead for a new criminal case to be brought against the jailed Yukos founder and his business partner, the Russian Prosecutor General's office said

WORLD

* The Russian and Bolivian presidents, Dmitry Medvedev and Evo Morales, pledged stronger ties with a focus on cooperation in natural gas production and transportation following their talks in the Kremlin

* Iran expects to receive the backing of Russia, which holds the presidency of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, in its bid for full membership of the security group, Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki said

* Egypt has given the two main Palestinian political parties, Hamas and Fatah, two months to establish a transitional national unified government, the London-based Asharq Alawsat newspaper said

* Neither Hamas nor Hezbollah will send delegates to a Middle East peace conference in Moscow, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said

* North Korea blasted media reports that it was planning to test a long-range missile, describing a possible rocket launch as part of a domestic space program

* The Venezuelan people won a great victory in voting to end presidential term limits, President Hugo Chavez told thousands of supporters in Caracas

* The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development and Ukraine signed an agreement on a 135 million euro ($174 million) grant as part of the international Chernobyl cleanup effort

* The Kyrgyz government submitted to parliament a bill terminating deals with all 11 countries which use a U.S. airbase at Manas airport, a government spokesman said

* Moldova's breakaway republic of Transdnestr has rejected Chisinau's proposals for the future status of the separatist region, a deputy foreign minister of Transdnestr said

* The former Georgian republic of Abkhazia is seeking to restart regular security meetings on issues concerning its Gali District with representatives from Tbilisi, the republic's foreign minister, Sergei Shamba said

* Five people were killed after an aircraft crashed near an airport in central Iran, the IRNA official news agency reported

* The Danish prime minister, Anders Fogh Rasmussen, is the most likely candidate for the secretary general post at NATO, a diplomatic source close to North Atlantic bloc said

* At least 40 people have been injured in a head-on collision between two passenger trains in the northeast of the Czech Republic, a Czech railways spokeswoman said

* Over 23 kilograms of heroin (50 lbs) have been seized from drug dealers in southern Uzbekistan, a spokesman for the National Security Service said

BUSINESS

* Russian metals giant Norilsk Nickel said it was suspending nickel production at its Black Swan and Lake Johnston sites in Western Australia amid falling world nickel prices

* Russia's industrial output fell 16%, year-on-year, in January 2009, the country's state statistics body said

* Russia's crude production in January declined 0.8% year-on-year to 41 million metric tons (300.5 million barrels), while natural gas output fell 10.5% to 55.2 billon cubic meters, the Federal Statistics Service said

* Russian natural gas producer Itera said it had no plans to cut gas output in 2009 and could even boost it by 6.5% to 12.25 billion cubic meters