* Russian specialists monitoring the current Atlantis mission to the International Space Station said the U.S. space shuttle's crew were preparing for their first spacewalk after docking Sunday with the orbital station, which is run jointly by Russia's Federal Space Agency and NASA
* Preliminary estimates showed France's ruling UMP party won some 45% of the vote in the first round of parliamentary elections Sunday, and could secure up to 470 seats in France's 557-member National Assembly after a June 17 runoff
* Russia's Defense Ministry dismissed allegations by Georgian lawmakers that it was building a military base in Georgia's breakaway province of Abkhazia
* A spokesman for Russia's navy said Russian and British men-of-war met up in the northwestern Atlantic for an international exercise that will also involve ships from France and the United States
