Main news of December 13

A roundup of what has happened in the past 24 hours

WORLD

* Part of the funding for the Eastern Partnership initiative (EaP) must come from outside the EU budget, the final document of a meeting of EaP foreign ministers in Brussels said

* Iran's Atomic energy chief Ali Akbar Salehi was appointed acting foreign minister, the IRNA news agency reported.

*About 7,000 soldiers from Afghan security forces will guard the projected Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India (TAPI) gas pipeline, construction of which is due to start in 2012, Afghanistan's Bakhtar news agency said late on Sunday, quoting the country's Minister of Mines Wahidullah Shahrani

RUSSIA

* The Russian Armed Forces will receive over 1,300 types of weaponry in line with a draft arms procurement program until 2020, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said

* Russian President Dmitry Medvedev instructed police to punish the perpetrators of a recent anti-ethnic riot in the capital, which he named as a threat to national security

* Russia's opposition coalition formed a new political party ahead of the 2011 parliamentary elections

* A Moscow city court on Monday issued an arrest warrant for yet another suspect in the killing of a football fan

* Police confirmed 80 people were detained in downtown St. Petersburg over the weekend as they attempted to block a road in protest against the killing of a football fan in Moscow

BUSINESS

* The construction of the Greek section of the South Stream pipeline is estimated at 750 million euros, Greek Deputy Minister for Environment and Energy Ioannis Maniatis said

* The Russian government is discussing possible cooperation with Exxon and BP in a joint development of the country's shelf deposits, Deputy Prime Minister Igor Sechin said

* Russia must develop a program for hydrocarbon production from unconventional sources in response to the country's depletion of its traditional energy reserves, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev told the Security Council

* German engineering conglomerate Siemens and Russia's Iskra Avigaz are to set up Rusturbomash, a joint venture to produce compressors for gas turbine units in the city of Perm in the Urals, the local administration said