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Main News of September 20

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A roundup of what has happened in the past 24 hours 20.09.2013, Sputnik International

2013-09-20T20:12+0000

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Main News of September 20

20:12 GMT 20.09.2013

A roundup of what has happened in the past 24 hours

RUSSIA

* Former Kremlin ideologue Vladislav Surkov, who resigned from the Russian government in May, has been appointed a presidential aide, the Kremlin press service said in a statement.

* Some 300 to 400 Russians are fighting in the Syrian civil war as soldiers of fortune, a senior official in Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) told reporters.

* Russian authorities said that a seized Greenpeace icebreaker was being towed from the Arctic Pechora Sea to the port of Murmansk, where it will be investigated for “piracy” over its alleged attack on a Gazprom oil rig.

* Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, who came in an impressive second place in recent elections for Moscow mayor, said that the court date for his appeal of a contentious embezzlement conviction has been set for October 9.

* The countdown for the return of Moldovan wine to the Russian market will start as soon as Chisinau establishes a reliable system of quality control at its wineries, Russia’s chief consumer rights official said.

* Russia placed second after the United States in the number of confidential information leaks globally in the first half of the current year, an information security company said.

WORLD

* Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko has said the CEO of a Russian fertilizer giant could be extradited to Russia as long as his activities are duly investigated – an announcement Moscow welcomed.

* Ukrainian experts and equipment could play a role in the destruction of Syrian chemical weapons, the ex-Soviet nation’s leader said.

* Venezuela’s top diplomat has accused the United States of closing its airspace to the plane of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, complicating his plans to fly to China.

BUSINESS

* A deal between state-owned hi-tech corporation Rostekhnologii (Russian Technologies, or Rostec) and Russian flagship carrier Aeroflot for the lease of 50 Boeing-737 Next Generation airliners is worth $3.5 billion, the corporation said.

* Global media giant Viacom has taken back control of the MTV network in Russia after years of franchising the brand to local license holders, and will relaunch the channel Oct. 1, an entertainment news website has reported.

DEFENSE

* About 12,000 Russian servicemen take part in joint biannual military exercises between Russia and Belarus beginning on Friday.

* The Russian Black Sea Fleet’s Moskva warship has arrived to lead Russia’s naval task force in the Mediterranean Sea, a fleet spokesperson said.

* Russia's only aircraft carrier, the Admiral Kuznetsov, will take part in five-day naval exercises in the Barents Sea from Saturday until September 25, a spokesman for Russia’s Northern Fleet said.

SPACE

* NASA announced that it had “reluctantly” halted efforts to communicate with the Deep Impact space probe, which had been exploring comets since it was launched in early 2005 but suddenly went silent six weeks ago.