* A Russian carrier rocket launched from the Baikonur space center delivered Kazakhstan's first communications satellite into orbit, the Russian Federal Space Agency said

* Iran rejects any preconditions in the talks on its nuclear program, Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi said

* Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki said "a positive atmosphere" had been created that could help achieve agreement over Iran's nuclear program at talks with world powers

* A Russian carrier rocket with a U.S. satellite was launched from a floating platform in the Pacific under the Sea Launch program

* Police arrested a person suspected of several killings in the south of Moscow

* An accident at the electric power plant in Kemerovo in southwest Siberia left the city without electricity, the regional administration said