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Main News of August 12

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A roundup of what has happened in the past 24 hours 12.08.2013, Sputnik International

2013-08-12T19:58+0000

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Main News of August 12

19:58 GMT 12.08.2013

A roundup of what has happened in the past 24 hours

WORLD

* The US government has given Moscow a list of 61,625 Russian children adopted by US citizens, the Kremlin’s ombudsman for children’s rights said in an interview published Monday

* The United Nations has denied media reports that chemical weapons experts have postponed their trip to Syria, a UN spokesman said

* A week after senior US lawmaker Sen. Chuck Schumer called Russian President Vladimir Putin a “schoolyard bully,” on Monday he urged athletes marching in the opening ceremonies at the Winter Olympics in Sochi next year to wave the rainbow flag to show support for gay rights and embarrass the Russian leader

* British military inspectors will fly over the territories of Russia and Belarus starting from Monday as part of the international Open Skies Treaty, a Russian Defense Ministry official said

* Israel’s government approved a list of 26 Palestinian prisoners, who will be amnestied and released ahead of the second round of direct talks between the countries this week, an Israeli government spokesman said

* A 6.5 magnitude earthquake was registered on early Monday off to Indonesia’s eastern Maluku province, the Indonesian Agency for Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics said

* North Korea has showcased what it claims is the country’s first smartphone, media reports said Monday

* A Hungarian man who was arrested last year and charged with involvement in Nazi war crimes during World War II has died aged 98, Hungarian and international media reported Monday

RUSSIA

* Russia's Interior Ministry, which controls the police force, confirmed Monday that the country's controversial anti-gay law will be enforced during the Sochi 2014 Olympics

* Now that he has received a visa from Russian authorities, Lon Snowden, the father of fugitive US intelligence leaker Edward Snowden, plans to travel to Moscow to meet with his son soon, but “not this week,” said a communications representative for Lon Snowden’s attorney on Monday

* Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday urged coordinated efforts in building sections of a new highway around Moscow to alleviate traffic jams

* Prosecutors said Monday they would consider a request by a Russian human rights group to investigate a camp set up by the Moscow authorities for foreigners awaiting deportation. The rights group claims that the camp is “unlawful"

* The Kremlin’s centralized control over executive power in Russia facilitates graft, the majority of respondents in a new nationwide poll released Monday said

* Police said they have detained hundreds of illegal immigrants in weekend raids in at least eight of Russia’s 83 regions, following similar operations in the country’s two largest cities, Moscow and St. Petersburg

* Russian prosecutors said Monday that Moscow mayoral candidate and opposition leader Alexei Navalny has accepted illegal donations from abroad to fund his electoral campaign

* Russia's northernmost active volcano churned out ash to a height of up to seven kilometers (4.3 miles) in the country's Far East, local Emergencies Ministry’s department reported

* Usain Bolt may have won world 100m gold Sunday in Moscow, but he admitted being disappointed at one thing – “serious” Russians cramping his style

* The Russian economy will avoid a recession but is in a period of stagnation caused by high levels of social spending and structural problems, Russia’s top economic official said in an interview published by Kommersant newspaper

* Russian steel giant Novolipetsk Steel’s US GAAP net profit fell by 84 percent in January-June 2013 year-on-year to $72 million, the company said Monday, citing unfavorable market conditions

* A court in the Russian city of Yekaterinburg refused Monday to postpone the trial of a former local editor-in-chief accused of extortion, embezzlement and money laundering after she rejected her court-appointed lawyer

* A pair of scrap metal dealers in the Siberian region of Krasnoyarsk are accused of stealing a locomotive and selling it as scrap for a price nearly 20 times less than what they pledged to pay a railway operator for it, police said

* The final version of the engine for Russia’s first fifth-generation T-50 fighter jet will be available by the end of the current decade, the United Engine Making Corporation said Monday

* The Kalashnikov Corporation, set to absorb major Russian small-arms makers, has been officially established, Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin said Monday

* A Russian court has subpoenaed 12 witnesses in the murder trial of investigative reporter Anna Politkovskaya

* The third of six new “black hole” submarines that Russia is making for the Vietnamese navy will be floated out later this month, the shipbuilder said Monday, adding that the first of another six, for Russia’s own Black Sea Fleet, would be floated out in November

* Two policemen in eastern Siberia will be fired over a snooze break that allowed three drug users to escape from detention, local police said Monday

* A fisherman in Russia’s far east has been hospitalized after being mauled by a brown bear, the local Interior Ministry said Monday

* A prosecutor on Monday requested life imprisonment for a man accused of fatally shooting six people in the southwest Russian city of Belgorod

* How serious are you about the threat of the European spruce bark beetle? Most likely not as much as a senior Russian Orthodox priest who pledged to hold a service to prevent the insect from demolishing forests outside Moscow

* A Russian man who was told by doctors that swimming would help his back has reportedly swum 400 kilometers (250 miles) across the Black Sea, resting at night in an inflatable boat

SPORT

* Two-time Olympic 400-meter hurdles champion Edwin Moses on Monday slammed calls for the United States to boycott an Olympic Games in Russia for a second time

* Zenit St. Petersburg is also in a period of reform after the surprise belt-tightening at fellow Russian football club Anzhi Makhachkala, midfielder Andrei Arshavin said Monday

* Canada’s Brianne Theisen-Eaton took the early lead in the women’s heptathlon at the world championships in Moscow Monday after setting the fastest time in the opening 100 meter hurdles in a race missing the reigning Russian world champion

* While half the eight-man field in the 110-meter hurdles final at the world athletics championships will hail from the United States, it was Russia's Sergey Shubenkov who emerged as the man to beat after the semifinals on Monday

* The women's 100-meter final at the world athletics championships has the making of a classic showdown between Jamaica and the United States after Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce and Carmelita Jeter topped the field in the semifinals in Moscow on Monday