| December 2008 |
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Robert Dudley stepped down on Monday as CEO of TNK-BP, the Russian-British joint oil venture said. 
Around 60 militants belonging to the radical Islamic Taliban movement have been killed in Afghanistan in the past 24 hours, a spokesman for the country's Defense Ministry said on Monday. 
Raiffeisenbank has granted a $100 million 12-month loan to Gazprom Neft, the oil producing arm of energy giant Gazprom, the bank said on Monday. 
The head of the Ukrainian presidential administration has said that Ukraine is unlikely to join NATO's Membership Action Plan (MAP) this year. 
Mechel, a leading Russian mining and metals company, has applied to national development bank Vnesheconombank for a loan of almost $2 billion to refinance its foreign liabilities, business paper Vedomosti said on Monday. 
A large Russian assault ship patrolling waters off the Abkhaz coast was put on alert after guests at a wedding party fired celebratory shots into the air from pistols and a flare gun. 
North Korea brought into force on Monday restrictions on cross-border movement with the South and suspended the countries' rail link, in protest against Seoul's "hostile policies". 
Russia and Venezuela will begin joint naval exercises in the Caribbean on Monday, lasting two days. 
A coal mine explosion in northern China has killed 18 people, including three rescuers, the Xinhua news agency reported on Monday. 
At least 114 people have died and over 78,000 have been left homeless in flooded areas of southern Brazil, the country's Civil Defense Service said on Monday. 
A treaty between Russia and Norway on visa facilitation and readmission comes into force on Monday. Norway is not a European Union member, but is within the Schengen passport-free zone.




