RUSSIA

* Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said the Russian economy would not be subject to nationalization

* Ramzan Kadyrov, the president of the Russian republic of Chechnya, said he opposed the idea of merging the province with the neighboring republic of Ingushetia

* The lower house of Russia's parliament ratified friendship treaties with South Ossetia and Abkhazia

* More than 270 militants were arrested and 46 killed in Russia's North Caucasus republic of Chechnya in the first nine months of 2007, the Chechen interior minister said

* Two Jesuit priests were found murdered in their flat in central Moscow evening, a Russian Catholic Church official said

WORLD

* The UN General Assembly adopted a resolution demanding the U.S. lift an economic, trade and financial embargo against Cuba

* The European Court of Human Rights ordered Russia to pay 1,000 euros (some $1,300) in compensation to a Russian journalist over the violation of his right to self-expression

* The outgoing Maldives president, known as Asia's longest serving leader, lost the country's presidential elections to a former political prisoner

* Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili rejected reports by Britain's BBC that his country's troops were guilty of war crimes during Georgia's attack on South Ossetia in August

* At least 160 people have died since an earthquake of magnitude 6.4 struck southwestern Pakistan destroying villages early on Wednesday morning, local officials reported

BUSINESS

* RTS and MICEX, the leading Russian stock exchanges, showed robust growth in Wednesday trading, with their benchmark indices climbing almost 12% and 14%, respectively

* Leonid Fedun, the vice president of LUKoil, Russia's largest independent oil producer, said:

- Russia will decrease its oil production by 1-1.5% next year, the vice president of LUKoil, Russia's independent oil producer, said

- LUKoil intends to increase oil production by 1.5% and natural gas production by 3-4% in 2009

* Gazprom Neft, the oil arm of energy giant Gazprom, said it had revised its 2008 oil output forecast down from 31.7 million tons (232 million barrels) to 31.2 million tons (229 million barrels)