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Main news of August 22

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A round up of what happened in the past 24 hours. 22.08.2010, Sputnik International

2010-08-22T20:00+0000

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Main news of August 22

20:00 GMT 22.08.2010

A round up of what happened in the past 24 hours.

Russia:

* Slightly over 200 wildfires are still raging in European Russia on an area of 6,391 hectares, although their number has dropped by 36 in the past twenty-four hours, the Emergencies Ministry said

* Russian Federal Service for Consumer Rights and Human Welfare Protection (Rospotrebnadzor) will refrain from visiting Moldovan wine producing enterprises, the service's chief Gennady Onishchenko said

* Bomb technicians have defused an explosive device with the equivalent of 15 kilograms of TNT in Russia's volatile North Caucus republic of Dagestan, local police reported

* Yunus-Bek Yevkurov, the president of the Russian North Caucasus republic of Ingushetia, voiced his intention to change his title into "head" instead of "president"

* President of Russia's volatile North Caucasus Republic of Dagestan Magomedsalam Magomedov decided to reward security officers who killed the mastermind of the March suicide bombings on the Moscow metro

* Isa Yamadayev, a third brother of the Yamadayev clan, opposing the Chechen President Ramzan Kadyrov, said he is ready to become Kadyrov's ally

* Russia delivered about 10 tones of humanitarian aid to South Ossetia under an interdepartmental humanitarian action due to be held up to September

* Police prevented an attempt by the opposition to turn a rally sanctioned in downtown Moscow into a march across Moscow streets, a RIA Novosti correspondent reported

* Leaders of the opposition Solidarity movement Boris Nemtsov and Mikhail Schneider were detained by police for attempts to stage an unsanctioned march in Moscow, a spokesman for the Moscow police said

* Russian opposition leader and human rights activist Lev Ponomaryov was detained by Moscow police for attempts to stage an unsanctioned march, a Moscow police source said

* Russia celebrated its National Flag Day, one of its main state holidays

* Russian canoeist Ivan Shtyl won a gold medal at the 200 meters men's single event (C1) at the Canoe Sprint World Championships

World:

* A death toll from rain-triggered mudslides in northwest China's Gansu Province has risen to 1,434, while some 330 are still missing

* Iran unveiled the country's first domestically-built unmanned bomber, Iranian Press TV reported

* Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas will not participate in direct talks with Israel, if it continues settlement constructions on the Palestinian territory, Saib Arikat, a head of the process of negotiations with Israel, said

* The League of Arab States is concerned Israeli government's position may halt Middle East talks again, the organization's official statement said

* A U.S. drone attack has killed at least six suspected militants in northwestern Pakistan near the Afghan border, local authorities said

* At least four people were injured in a suspected motorcycle gang shootout in central Arizona, CNN reported, citing an official with the Yavapai County Sheriff's Office

* King Fahd of Saudi Arabian King Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz has ordered to send two field hospitals to Pakistan severely affected by floods, Saudi Arabian media said

* Somali pirates who have been holding an Egyptian merchant ship since early August have demanded a $4 million ransom for the ship's release, the Egyptian newspaper Al-Ahram reported

* Two people were injured after a private light plane crashed near Almaty, the largest city of Kazakhstan

* Egyptian Prosecutor General Abdel Meguid Mahmud personally joined an investigation of a Van Gogh painting worth over $50 million stolen from a Cairo museum, Egyptian media said