* Russia's prosecutors formally refused to extradite businessman Andrei Lugovoi, accused by the U.K. of murdering former Russian security officer Alexander Litvinenko
* Russian President Vladimir Putin and Finnish President Tarja Halonen will meet in the city of Saransk in European Russia in mid-July, the Russian foreign minister said following negotiations with his Finnish counterpart
* A meeting of the Middle East quartet of mediators, postponed in June following the Gaza Strip violence, will be held in London July 10, the Russian Foreign Ministry's official spokesman said
* Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said NATO's further expansion eastward was reminiscent of the Cold War standoff between the Soviet Union and the West
* Russia plans to resume the evacuation of its nationals from the volatile Gaza Strip in the next few days, a senior Foreign Ministry official said
* Russia's food safety watchdog has prevented the import of expired Brazilian pork disguised as sprats, the regulator said in a press release
* Russia will conduct the first tests of its new S-400 Triumf air defense complex next week prior to its commissioning with the Armed Forces, the air defense chief said
* Eight Palestinian militants were killed and six injured in an air and ground operation carried out by the Israeli Army in central Gaza, a local health official said
* Private investment in Sochi could exceed 500 billion ($20 billion) by 2014, the deputy governor of the Krasnodar Territory in southern Russia said
* The Russian economy suffers an annual loss of some $2 billion from worldwide counterfeit production of Kalashnikov assault rifles, an official with Russia's state-run arms exporter Rosoboronexport said
* Russia's small arms exports have been growing steadily over the past few years, with current sales totaling $200 million annually, the head of the state-run arms exporter Rosoboronexport said
* AvtoVAZ plans to establish a joint venture to produce engines with Italy's Fiat, the Russian carmaker's head said
* Coca-Cola announced the acquisition of a 100% stake in Russia's Aqua-Vision from Britain's Health Tech Corporation Limited for 191.5 million euros ($250 million), the companies said
* Net capital inflow by Russian banks increased 438% in the first half of 2007 to $37.1 billion from $6.9 billion in the same period last year, the Central Bank of Russia (CBR)
* Russia's state-controlled nuclear equipment exporter Techsnabexport (Tenex) said its net income, calculated to International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS), climbed 15%, year-on-year, in 2006 to 2.64 billion rubles (about $102 million).
* A Polish deputy foreign minister said Boeing is likely to be chosen as the contractor for a proposed U.S. missile base in Poland
* Russia and Venezuela are preparing a contract for the delivery of Russian-made diesel submarines to the Latin American country, the head of Russia's state-run arms exporter said
* Pakistani security forces detonated eight warning explosions near Islamabad's radical Red Mosque to encourage entrenched religious students to surrender
* South Korea will begin delivering fuel oil to North Korea July 14 now that Pyongyang has pledged to shut down its nuclear reactor, the Unification Ministry said
* Japan and the United States are planning to conduct in January 2008 their first joint exercises on countering a potential missile attack, a Japanese newspaper said
* Swans found dead in eastern France died of bird flu, the Agriculture Ministry said
* Four more political parties came out in support of Ukraine's pro-presidential bloc with a total of ten parties signing a declaration on unification of democratic forces, the Our Ukraine press service said
* Georgia's conflict settlement minister said that his country had started working on settlement proposals for the breakaway region of South Ossetia, as the time and place of the next meeting is uncertain
* President Kurmanbek Bakiyev said Kyrgyzstan did not need to form a confederation with Russia or any other state at the moment
* The Chinese intelligence service is not connected with a woman arrested on suspicion of spying in Kyrgyzstan last month, the Kyrgyz State Committee for National Security said
