2007 Review: July

RIA Novosti looks back at the main events of the outgoing year; below the month-by-month review of 2007 continues with July

July 1

* President Vladimir Putin begins his two-day visit to the United States aimed at mending strained bilateral relations

July 2

* President Vladimir Putin proposes to his U.S. counterpart, George W. Bush, exchanging information on missile launches and using a radar being built in southern Russia for early missile warnings 

July 3

* The Czech government gives the U.S. the go ahead to deploy a missile defense radar 50 miles southwest of Prague

July 4

* BBC correspondent Alan Johnston is released from 114-day captivity by a radical Islamic group in Gaza

July 5

* The Russian Black Sea resort of Sochi is announced as host city for the 2014 Winter Olympic Games at a ceremony in Guatemala

July 6

* The State Duma, Russia's lower house of parliament, approves in the third and final reading the first three-year budget, seen as a transition to longer-term financial planning and designed to streamline finances and expenditures

July 11

* The Pakistani military regains control of the Red Mosque, freeing at least 160 students held hostage there during a week-long standoff, the army spokesman says

July 12

* Gazprom chooses French oil major Total SA as a partner in the first stage of developing the vast Shtokman natural gas field in the Barents Sea

July 14

* President Vladimir Putin decrees to suspend the Conventional Forces in Europe (CFE) Treaty until NATO ratifies its upgraded version and honors commitments under the document, the Kremlin press service says

July 15

* North Korea shuts down its Yongbyon nuclear reactor, the Russian Foreign Ministry says

* U.K. Foreign Secretary David Miliband says four Russian diplomats will be expelled over Moscow's refusal to extradite Andrei Lugovoi, accused of murdering former Russian security officer Alexander Litvinenko in London in 2006

* A 6.8-magnitude earthquake kills at least five and injures over 500 people in Japan. Japan's largest nuclear power plant suffers significant damage in the quake

July 18

* Libyan authorities lift death sentences against five Bulgarian nurses and a Palestinian doctor convicted of infecting children with HIV, following a large compensation payout to the victims' families from an international fund

July 19

* Russia's Foreign Ministry says four British diplomats will be expelled from Russia in a move mirroring the U.K.'s July 15 expulsion of Russian diplomats over Moscow's refusal to extradite a high-profile murder suspect

July 20

* A draft resolution on Kosovo's future is withdrawn from UN Security Council debate over Russia's opposition to proposed independence for the Albanian-dominated Serbian province

July 23

* Turkey's Islamic Justice and Development Party (AK Party) retains power following a convincing victory in Sunday's parliamentary elections, despite opposition from the secularist president and the army

July 26

* Italy, Turkey, and Greece sign an agreement to build a pipeline to bring natural gas from the Caspian and the Middle East to European markets, Italy's Edison gas company says

July 27

* Boeing sets up a joint venture with Russia's VSMPO-Avisma, the world's largest titanium producer, to make components for the U.S. aviation giant's super-light Dreamliner passenger aircraft

July 31

* President Vladimir Putin meets with Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas who visits Moscow to discuss the worsening situation in the Palestinian territories following recent violent clashes between Fatah and Hamas in Gaza