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Main news of July 20

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A roundup of what has happened in the past 24 hours 20.07.2010, Sputnik International

2010-07-20T19:59+0000

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Main news of July 20

19:59 GMT 20.07.2010

A roundup of what has happened in the past 24 hours

WORLD

* Participants at the International Conference on Afghanistan in Kabul supported a program of national priorities proposed by the country's authorities and vowed to support further efforts to restore security and peace

* Russian President Dmitry Medvedev arrived on a two-day visit to Finland in the city of Turku to hold talks with Finnish President Tarja Halonen

* Russia is ready to continue equipping the Afghan army and police force, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told an International Conference on Afghanistan

* A New York city court has arrested a group of alleged drug traffickers, including a Russian charter pilot, a Russian respected business daily said

* The time has come for the international community to recognize the independence of Abkhazia and South Ossetia, Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega said

* The Israeli Defense Ministry reported that tests of the Iron Dome air defense system are complete and that interceptor missiles will soon be deployed

* Two people were killed and five were injured when a bomb went off in Kabul ahead of the International Conference on Afghanistan

* A delegation of U.S. experts arrived in Moscow for the forth round of talks on child adoption

* Two-day military exercises involving NATO fighter jets began at the Adazi training ground outside Riga

RUSSIA

* One of the alleged female suicide bombers detained last week in Russia's Dagestan was planning a terrorist attack on Moscow in July, a high-ranking police source said

* The Other Russia opposition party, whose official program was published on Tuesday, wants to build a new capital "from scratch" in South Siberia

* The Russian industrial safety watchdog has drawn up a list of people whose possible negligence may have led to blasts which killed dozens of miners in Western Siberia in May, a business daily said

BUSINESS

* Russian leasing company Ilyushin Finance and the Irkut aircraft maker signed a memorandum of intent to buy 28 MS-21 passenger airliners with an option for another 22 aircraft

* Russia is to sell around 300 MiG- and Su-family warplanes at home and abroad by 2015, Sukhoi and MiG companies said

* Russia's Sukhoi Civil Aircraft and Thailand's Orient Thai Airlines signed a memorandum of intent on the delivery of 12 Sukhoi Superjet 100 aircraft and an option on 12 more airliners

* Russian state-owned Agency for Housing Mortgage Lending (AHML) increased its forecast for 2010 housing mortgage lending by 12-14%, the agency said in a statement

* Russian leasing company Ilyushin Finance signed a contract to purchase 10 An-158 planes from Ukraine's Antonov aircraft holding company with an option to buy 10 more, the companies said

* Russia's Central Bank has warned that 209 banks presently fail to meet the minimum capital requirement of 180 million rubles ($5.8 million) to be introduced in 2012, a bank official said

* Russia's Vnesheconombank (VEB) expects the $6.7 billion the bank issued to local companies to refinance foreign debt in peak crisis months will be repaid by this fall, VEB head Vladimir Dmitriyev said

* Russia's Magnitogorsk Iron and Steel Works has dropped its plans to build a steel plant in the United States amid doubts over the recovery of the U.S. demand for steel, Kommersant business paper reported

*Russian developer DON-Stroy will sell its business centre NordStar Tower to repay its 20 billion rouble debt to Sberbank, Kommersant business daily said