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Main news of June 2

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RUSSIA * Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has recommended the scrapping of a bill restricting media freedoms, approved by parliament in its first reading on... 02.06.2008, Sputnik International

2008-06-02T18:12+0000

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Main news of June 2

18:12 GMT 02.06.2008

RUSSIA

* Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has recommended the scrapping of a bill restricting media freedoms, approved by parliament in its first reading on April 25, the Kremlin press service said

* Deputies of Russia's lower house of parliament and the EU's external relations commissioner, Benita Ferrero-Waldner, will discuss a new Russia-EU cooperation agreement June 4, a Russian MP said

* Yury Ushakov has quit his post as Russian ambassador to the United States and will join the government staff under the new prime minister, Vladimir Putin

* Russia's leading uranium mining company, Atomredmetzoloto, a subsidiary of state nuclear power company Atomenergoprom, said it intends to start uranium prospecting in Namibia in the third quarter of 2008

* Russia may reduce in the future the number of key economic sectors included in a list of strategic industries, the finance minister said

* Russia's Irkut corporation, the manufacturer of the famed family of Su fighter planes, said it had delivered another two Su-30MKA Flanker multi-role fighters to Algeria

* Russia's Air Force is planning to conduct over 200 exercises with 350 live firing drills in the second half of 2008, an AF spokesman said

* The Russian government will provide an additional 420 million rubles ($18 mln) to the city of Vladivostok to cover preparations for the 2012 APEC summit, Russia's prime minister said

* The death toll in the recent mine accident in Western Siberia has risen to four after the body of another miner was discovered on Monday, a mine spokesman said

* A police officer, who was shot in the head during an attack on a police checkpoint in the north of Russia's republic of Ingushetia, has died in hospital, an interior ministry spokesman said

* A man who was badly injured in a recent explosion at an oil refinery near St. Petersburg died, bringing the death toll to two, a hospital source said

* Two Russian emergencies ministry aircraft are heading to China with aid on board for those affected by the devastating earthquake that hit the Sichuan province in the country's southwest on May 12

* A UN environmental group's report on the Sochi-2014 Winter Olympics has had mixed reactions among Russian authorities and environmental activists

WORLD

* The chief of the UN nuclear watchdog expressed regret that the agency had not succeeded in clarifying all the remaining issues regarding Iran's nuclear program and its possible relation to military research

* Russia has supplied the first three batches of nuclear fuel for India's Kudankulam nuclear power plant, the state nuclear corporation, Atomenergoprom, said

* Warsaw hopes Moscow will enlarge the number of accredited livestock produce suppliers to Russia, a Polish Embassy official said

* The pirates who seized a Dutch cargo vessel off the Somali coast last week have threatened to kill the Russian-Filipino crew if any rescue attempt is made, a Dutch agency said

* Five miners are missing following a cave-in and methane leak at a coal mine in central Kazakhstan, the region's governor said

* A total of 13 people were burned alive in northeast Venezuela when the bus they were travelling in overturned and caught fire, national radio reported

* Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski's coalition is leading in Macedonia's parliamentary polls, with 46.7% of the vote, early official results said

* The Discovery crew have carried out a partial-wing inspection of the space shuttle to check for launch damage prior to docking with the International Space Station, a NASA spokesperson said

* French leaders and international designers paid tribute on Monday to Yves Saint Laurent, widely considered the creator of modern women's fashion, who died of a brain tumor late on Sunday at the age of 71

* Nepal's former monarch has agreed to leave the royal palace in the country's capital, Kathmandu, by June 12, the Nepalese home minister said

* Two people in China's quake-hit province of Sichuan have been rescued after spending some 20 days beneath the rubble of a collapsed building, China's Xinhua news agency said

* The death toll in the heavy snow and sand storms that hit Mongolia last week has risen to 52, the Chinese news agency Xinhua reported

* Kazakhstan's government will regain a controlling stake in national oil and gas producer MangistauMunaiGas, sold to Indonesia's largest energy company Medco nine years ago, the prime minister said

* Azerbaijan's oil exports stood at 17.2 million metric tons (126.4 million bbl) of oil in January-April 2008, up 4.7 million metric tons (34.5 million bbl), or 37.8% year-on-year, the country's State Customs Committee said

* Guatemala hopes to establish cooperation with Russia in oil refining and mining, the Central American country's deputy energy and mines minister, Alfredo Pokus, said

* Thirteen people have been killed and another 150,000 left homeless in Sri Lanka following floods triggered by torrential rains, local emergencies services reported

* Iranian authorities have suspended the operations of one of the country's most prominent news agencies, Fars, over the publication of "false news", Iran's ministry of culture said in a statement

* Six children died when a train collided with a school bus in eastern France near the Swiss border, France Info radio said

* Greenpeace activists protesting against a proposed U.S. missile defense radar in the Czech Republic declared the 'founding of a new state' called Peaceland

* Sunday's parliamentary elections in Macedonia failed to meet international standards, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) said

BUSINESS

* Gazprom has proposed buying Azerbaijani natural gas at market prices under a long-term contract, the Russian energy giant said in a statement

* The International Monetary Fund (IMF) said that Russia's GDP will grow by around 7.8% this year, boosted by high oil prices, and that inflation is likely to exceed the government target

* Armenia's foreign debt grew 26.9% year-on-year to $1.55 billion as of April 1, 2008, the South Caucasus country's national statistics body said

* Ukraine increased its transit of natural gas to Europe in January-May 2008 to 55.7 billion cubic meters, a 26% rise compared with the same period last year, the natural gas transit monopoly UkrTransGaz said

* A conflict between Russian and British TNK-BP shareholders is not affecting the joint oil venture's operations, the company said in an official statement