* Georgia's leadership announced that the arrest of six Russian servicemen in the country on suspicion of espionage had been conducted within international law, and warned Moscow against using economic sanctions in retaliation
* The Russian Foreign Ministry summoned to Moscow its ambassador to Georgia for consultations, and decided to evacuate some Russian Embassy staff from Tbilisi on September 29 along with all family members, on an Emergency Situations Ministry aircraft
* Iran's hard-line president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said his country would not agree to stop uranium enrichment, "even for one day."
* Russia called for the UN Security Council to hold consultations on the conflict between Georgia and its breakaway region of Abkhazia, a spokesperson for the Russian mission to the UN said
* Russia's advertising market will be worth $6 billion in 2006, up $1 billion on the previous year, a Russian official with the International Chamber of Commerce said
* Russia's Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov said:
- Gangsterism in Georgia has taken on a state scale after the detention of six Russian officers on espionage charges in the Caucasus state in the last 24 hours
- Certain new members of NATO are supplying Georgia with weapons earlier brought to them by the U.S.S.R. without the right to re-export them
* A St. Petersburg court sentenced Vyacheslav Lelyalin to 11 years in prison for his part in organizing the killing of prominent lawmaker Galina Starovoitova in 1998
* Oleg Mitvol, a deputy head of Russia's environmental watchdog, said Thursday that pipeline construction under the Sakhalin II oil and gas project in Russia's Far East must be stopped
* Russia's nuclear chief Sergei Kiriyenko said:
- He ruled out any future privatization of the country's nuclear sector
- Russia's estimated stock of uranium amounts to 615,000 tons
- An International Atomic Energy Agency delegation will soon arrive in Moscow to continue work to create an international center to enrich uranium in Angarsk
- He sees no obstacles to cooperation with Iran in the nuclear sphere
- Russia plans to sign deals in the next two years to build 10-15 nuclear power plants abroad
- The Federal Agency for Nuclear Power and aluminum giant SUAL may reach an agreement on October 6 on constructing a nuclear power plant and an aluminum plant in northwestern Russia
* Germany's Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier met in Berlin with Iran's top nuclear negotiator Ali Larijani for talks, at the request of European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana, the ministry said
* There are no plans to increase the number of personnel and military equipment at a Russian base in Armenia, Armenian chief of the general staff Mikael Arutyunyan said
* Ukraine's President Viktor Yushchenko called on the government not to dismiss regional governors before coordinating the move with the president
* About a hundred Russian and foreign dignitaries, including members of royalty, gathered in St. Isaac's Cathedral in St. Petersburg for services to commemorate a Danish-born Tsarina before she is laid to rest in her adopted homeland
* Unidentified attackers broke into the technical center of Kyrgyzstan's largest independent television station, Piramida, and set it on fire early Thursday
* Russia's Embassy in Tbilisi has suspended the issuing of Russian visas to Georgian nationals, the press secretary said
* One policeman was killed and one wounded when unknown assailants opened fire on a motorized column in central Chechnya, a law enforcement source said
