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RUSSIA * Russia's Air Force is planning to increase in the near future the number of combat aircraft and personnel deployed at the Kant air base in... 04.06.2008, Sputnik International

2008-06-04T18:05+0000

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Main news of June 4

18:05 GMT 04.06.2008

RUSSIA

* Russia's Air Force is planning to increase in the near future the number of combat aircraft and personnel deployed at the Kant air base in Kyrgyzstan, the Air Force commander said

* Communists in northwest Russia have condemned former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev's calls for Lenin's body to be moved from his tomb on Red Square and given a standard burial

WORLD

* Barack Obama claimed the Democratic Party presidential nomination on the last day of the U.S. primary season

* Poland would agree only to regular inspections by Russian military experts at a planned U.S. anti-missile base in the country, but not to their permanent presence, the Foreign Ministry said

* Israel's prime minister urged the international community to impose tougher economic and political sanctions against Iran in order to neutralize the potential nuclear threat coming from the country

* Israel has suspended fuel supplies to Gaza following a militant rocket attack on a fuel depot, Mahmoud al-Khuzundar of the Gaza petrol station owners association said

* Russian parliament issued a statement saying that Ukraine's accession to NATO would terminate a friendship treaty with Russia

* Around 400 fishermen from Italy, Spain, Portugal and France protesting against rocketing fuel prices that are cutting into their profits, clashed with police near the European Union headquarters in Brussels

* Around 2,000 families have abandoned their homes in northern Afghanistan in search of food and water, as the government struggles to relieve the ongoing crisis, national authorities said

* Russia has questioned Georgian intentions to raise the issue of Moscow's possible involvement in the shooting down of a reconnaissance drone over Abkhazia in April at the OSCE, the Foreign Ministry said

* Ukraine is ready to deploy a peacekeeping contingent in Georgia if Tbilisi's leaders make such a decision, Ukrainian Defense Minister Yuriy Yekhanurov said

* Russia's actions in Georgia's breakaway territory of Abkhazia could damage stability in the region, the EU's external relations commissioner told Russian lawmakers

* Georgia's foreign minister said the country will not challenge Russia's work to restore rail track in the breakaway region of Abkhazia, as long as certain conditions are observed

* The agreement between Ukraine and Russia on the stationing of Russia's Black Sea Fleet in the Crimea does not allow any increase in the number of warships, the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry said

* Russia's Svetlana Kuznetsova and Dinara Safina both clinched victories in their French Open quarterfinal matches at Roland Garros to set up an all-Russian semifinal

BUSINESS

* Novolipetsk Steel, one of Russia's largest steel producers, said its consolidated net profits calculated to US GAAP for the first quarter of 2008 grew 35% year-on-year to $617.7 million

* Russia's largest independent oil producer LUKoil said its U.S. GAAP net income climbed 140% year-on-year in the first quarter of 2008 to $3.16 billion

* Russian energy giant Gazprom is prepared to buy Azerbaijani natural gas at European market prices minus transport expenses, Russia's ambassador to the South Caucasus country said

* VTB increased its net profit calculated to Russian Accounting Standards by 178% year-on-year to 11.111 billion rubles ($469 million) in the first five months of 2008, the Russian state-run foreign trade bank said

* The net profit of Russia's second-largest mobile operator VimpelCom calculated to US GAAP grew 117% year-on-year in the first quarter to $601 million, the company said