Main News of Sept 14

WORLD

 

* US President Barack Obama said Saturday that he “welcomes” the surprise deal Moscow and Washington reached on chemical weapons in war-ravaged Syria, but warned that the US will use military force if diplomacy fails

* The United States and Russia reached a landmark deal Saturday that will see all chemical weapons in war-torn Syria brought under international control and destroyed by mid-2014.

 

RUSSIA

* The widow of a murdered Russian diplomat in Georgia’s breakaway republic of Abkhazia died Saturday of gunshot wounds, a medical doctor said

* Russian police started to “decriminalize” Moscow’s sprawling subways system on Saturday by “identifying and suppressing” ethnic crimes and conducting massive checks of labor migrants, a police spokesman said

* With the arrival of Russian military ships in the eastern part of the Arctic Laptev Sea off Russia’s northern coast in recent days the Ministry of Defense said Saturday that Russia now had a permanent military presence in the Arctic region

* Jailed former head of oil giant Yukos Mikhail Khodorkovsky has been nominated by European lawmakers for a prize celebrating freedom of thought, Radio Free Europe (RFE/RL) reported

 

SPORTS

 

* Alexander Kerzhakov scored one goal and set up another as Zenit St. Petersburg beat Terek Grozny 2-0 at home to keep pace with the Russian Premier League leaders

*Russian state-owned gas company Gazprom signed a deal Saturday to sponsor FIFA for a four-year period, including when Russia hosts the World Cup in 2018