23.08 Main News of August 23

RUSSIA

* The campaign headquarters of opposition Moscow mayoral candidate Alexei Navalny sent requests to tax bodies in Montenegro on Friday asking to provide documentation regarding the candidates alleged co-ownership of a company in the Balkan state, an allegation that Navalny has denied

* Over 50,000 people have now been affected by devastating floods in Russias Far East, the countrys Far East Development Ministry said

* Three senior managers at Russias Khrunichev space company were dismissed over a Proton-M space rockets crash last month, Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin said

* Russia's 17-year-old racing driver Sergei Sirotkin on Friday confirmed reports he has signed a deal with Sauber to drive for the Formula One team next season

* A senior Skolkovo manager accused of embezzling money allocated for developing the innovation center has been cleared of all charges and reinstated to the team, a Skolkovo Foundation spokesman said this week

* A Russian court sentenced the infamous Belgorod shooter who killed six people in a random shooting spree earlier this year to life imprisonment

WORLD

* A US Army psychiatrist on Friday was convicted of premeditated murder for a 2009 rampage shooting at the Fort Hood military base in Texas that left 13 people dead, making him eligible to become the first American soldier to be put to death in 52 years

* The International Olympic Committee (IOC) is comforted with Russias reassurances that there will be no discrimination against people attending next years Winter Olympics in Sochi, the committees president

* Russian officials conducted a secret inspection this week of a US missile defense base in California under the auspices of the New START arms treaty, a conservative US website reported

* Two UN agencies say the number of registered child refugees fleeing Syria's violence has topped the 1 million mark

* UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has asked the Syrian Government to allow a team of UN experts to investigate the latest claims that chemical weapons were used in Syria, the United Nations has reported on its website.