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Main news of December 9

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A roundup of what has happened in the past 24 hours 09.12.2009, Sputnik International

2009-12-09T21:00+0000

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Main news of December 9

21:00 GMT 09.12.2009

A roundup of what has happened in the past 24 hours

WORLD

* The Estonian parliament extended on Wednesday the mandate for the country's peacekeeping contingent in Afghanistan until the end of 2010

* The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe will prioritize the creation of a pan-European security architecture when Kazakhstan chairs the OSCE in 2010, a Kazakh envoy said

* Participants in the UN climate change conference underway in Copenhagen resumed on Wednesday after a two-hour halt due to a dispute between small island states and large countries, a WWF official said

* Ukraine's national energy firm Naftogaz gave further assurances on Wednesday that no new gas crisis with Russia is looming, as it has been paying for supplies on schedule

* Iran's plans to build 10 new uranium enrichment facilities are a forced measure as the UN nuclear watchdog is not fulfilling its obligations, the Iranian defense minister said

* Iran will receive 20%-enriched uranium for its research reactor in Tehran through cooperation with the UN nuclear watchdog, Iran's nuclear chief said

* Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari is seeking his country's accession to the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) regional security bloc, Pakistani state television said

* The Palestinian prime minister praised on Wednesday a recent EU resolution that says that Jerusalem should be the shared capital of the both Israel and a future Palestinian state

* Bolivian President Evo Morales has a 14% lead over his nearest rival after Sunday's presidential elections, the country's Central Election Committee has said

* The ninth ministerial forum of gas exporting countries will be held on Wednesday in the Qatari capital Doha

RUSSIA

* Moscow and the Vatican have exchanged notes formalizing the establishment of full diplomatic relations, Russia's Foreign Ministry said

* Media should cooperate in the information space to avoid "silly and absurd stereotypes," the editor-in-chief of the Russia Today TV channel told a 2009 media forum in Moscow on Wednesday

* The death toll from Saturday's nightclub fire in the Russian Urals city of Perm has reached 125, the regional administration said

* Political developments in the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) are a priority for Russia, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said

* Russian President Dmitry Medvedev urged on Wednesday the maintenance of a permanent unbiased dialogue between European and Asian media outlets

* The regional government of the Perm Territory in the Urals resigned on Wednesday over the recent deadly fire, which killed at least 124 people

* A Russian nightclub in the Urals that recently saw a fire that killed 121 people and left over 100 injured was designed for no more than 50 visitors, the local governor said

SPORT

* A 2-1 win in Turkey against Besiktas sent CSKA Moscow through to the knockout stages of the Champions League on Tuesday evening

BUSINESS

* President Viktor Yushchenko renewed on Wednesday his appeal for a "drastic review" of a 10-year natural gas contract with Russia, which ended the ex-Soviet states' latest pricing and debt row

* Russia's largest diversified consumer services group Sistema said on Wednesday its US GAAP net income grew 1,500%, year-on-year, in July-September 2009 to $1.68 billion