Main news of November 6

RUSSIA

* Russia's swine flu death toll has risen to 19, the country's sanitary and consumer rights watchdog said on its website

* Russia's health minister, Tatyana Golikova, warned the media against spreading panic over a swine and seasonal flu outbreak and said the situation was under control

* As Germany and the rest of the world prepare to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev warned against creating new barriers between nations

* North Korea's weaponizing of plutonium at its Yongbyon reactor should not be 'dramatized,' a spokesman for the Russian Foreign Ministry, Andrei Nesterenko, said

* An oil and gas company employee was shot dead in Russia's North Caucasus republic of Ingushetia, local police said

WORLD

* Warsaw denied Russian media reports that Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski asked Washington to deploy U.S. troops to protect Poland from potential attacks from Russia

* Egyptian authorities opened the Rafah crossing on the border with Gaza to allow Palestinian Hajj pilgrims to make their way to Saudi Arabia and Mecca, the Palestinian news agency Maan reported

* The number of casualties after a bus fell into a gorge in northern India has risen to 29 with another 27 injured, a police spokesman

* A gunman in the Japanese city of Yokohama committed suicide after having shot and seriously injured three men in a money dispute, Japanese media said

* At least two people were killed and eight injured in an office building shooting in Orlando, Florida, the local WFTV channel said

* Honduran de-facto leader Roberto Micheletti has announced the formation of a reconciliation government, Latin American media reported

* Ukraine's Naftogaz has paid Gazprom in full for Russian gas deliveries in October, Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko said

* An outbreak of flu in Ukraine has claimed 109 lives, an emergencies ministry spokesman said

BUSINESS

* The Central Bank said Russia's narrowly defined money supply (M1) was 4.049 trillion rubles ($139.4 billion at the current exchange rate) as of November 2, down 52 trillion rubles ($1.792 billion) in the week since October 26

* Russia's gold and foreign exchange reserves grew 5.1% to $434.428 billion in October, the Central Bank said

* Russia's foreign trade decreased by 43.9% year-on-year to $321.4 billion in January-September 2009, the Federal Customs Service said

* China's national oil and gas corporation, CNPC, and U.S. oil major Chevron have signed an agreement to jointly develop a gas field in the southwestern Chinese province Sichuan, the China Daily said