Main news of June 3

RUSSIA

* Gen. Nikolai Makarov's appointment as chief of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces suggests higher priority will be given to modernizing the military, a top Russian military expert said

* Russia destroyed over 25% of its chemical weapons arsenal, or 10,500 metric tons, a senior military official said

* Another suspect in the 2006 murder of Russian journalist Anna Politkovskaya was released from custody, the investigation committee announced

* Russia's government will set up special economic zones at airports and ports in three regions, the Transport Ministry said, announcing the results of tenders to develop the zones

WORLD 

* NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer said Russia should pull its unarmed railroad troops out of Georgia's breakaway region of Abkhazia

* Iran's president told a UN-sponsored summit in Rome that "powerful capitalists," who are trying to stop the development of nuclear energy, are to blame for high oil and food prices

* The UN secretary general told a UN-sponsored summit in Rome that food production will have to increase 50% by 2030 to meet global demand

* The Kazakh parliament ratified an agreement on establishing a customs union within the framework of the Eurasian Economic Community (Eurasec), a spokesman for the upper house of parliament said

* Five people were injured in a rocket attack on an Israeli agricultural area near the country's border with the Gaza Strip, medical personnel said

* A Paris court convicted French actress Brigitte Bardot of "inciting racial hatred" and fined her 15,000 euros ($23,325), French media reported

* Around 50,000 passengers are stuck on roads and railways in northwest India as local farmers entered the second week of a nationwide strike, local TV reported

BUSINESS

* Russia and Saudi Arabia signed a protocol on the conclusion of bilateral talks on Russia's accession to the World Trade Organization 

* VimpelCom, Russia's second largest mobile phone company operating under the Beeline brand, said it had signed an agreement to buy the remaining 49% in Russian Internet provider Corbina for $404 million

* Iran intends to build an oil pipeline to run across its territory to pump crude to global markets, Hossein Noghrehkar Shirazi, an Iranian deputy oil minister, said

* Ford closed a $2.3 billion deal to sell its Jaguar and Land Rover luxury brands to Tata Motors, India's largest automotive company, the U.S. company said

* Russia's decision to freeze imports of Turkish agricultural produce spread panic among local agricultural producers, Turkish media reported