RUSSIA

* TNK-BP's Russian billionaire shareholders plan to go to court following a dispute with their British partners in the joint oil venture, a spokesman for the group said

* Russia's president said that Moscow would take action to defend Russian-language media facing closure in countries with Russian speaking minorities

* Russia's president said the North Atlantic Treaty Organization is ill-equipped to address the security problems facing Europe

* Prime Minister Vladimir Putin pledged the government's support for Russian-language foreign press

* Five militants were killed in a counterterrorist operation in Ingushetia, investigators in the Russian North Caucasus republic said

* Russia's dominant political party could lose up to 30,000 members following an examination of party membership lists, a United Russia leader said

* Russia will deploy more personnel and equipment at its air base in Kyrgyzstan, the Air Force commander told a Russian daily

* Russian coast guards have detained a Norwegian ship in the Barents Sea for illegally crossing the Russian maritime border, the Federal Security Service said

* Russia is set to launch its first weather satellite, Meteor-M1, in the fourth quarter of 2008, the satellite's manufacturer said

* Two Tu-142 aircraft from Russia's Northern Fleet have successfully conducted a reconnaissance flight over the Arctic Ocean in latitudes close to the North Pole, a Navy spokesman said

* The U.S. Embassy in Russia has handed over to the Moscow police a 'suspicious' parcel containing an alarm-clock, a bible, and some dill and parsley, a police source said

* A court in the Republic of Karelia in Russia's north has given a nine-month suspended sentence to a woman who accidentally killed her common-law husband with two slaps, prosecutors said

* The Yantar Shipyard in Russia's Baltic exclave of Kaliningrad will start the construction of the third Project 11356 frigate for the Indian Navy under a second contract, the company said

* Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has signed a law ratifying a long-term pact with the other SCO members, comprising China and four Central Asian countries, the Kremlin said

WORLD

* Lebanon rejected on Wednesday Israel's proposal to resume peace talks saying the Jewish state should first withdraw from what it considers to be occupied Lebanese territory

* Sweden's Supreme Court turned down a request from Russia for the extradition of a Russian national from Chechnya wanted for a number of crimes, the court said in a statement

* Ukraine is concerned over a Russian chemical weapons disposal plant currently being constructed 70 km (43 miles) away from its borders, the country's foreign minister said

* Ukraine's new ambassador to Russia, Konstyantyn Hryshchenko, said he would do his best to change the view held by Russians of Ukraine as an "enemy"

* Deposed Nepalese monarch Gyanendra Shah said as he left the royal palace in Kathmandu that he would remain in Nepal and would not go into exile, the Nepal-news agency said

* Experts from Airbus will assist in the air accident investigation into the A310 Sudan Airways crash in the Sudanese capital of Khartoum, which left at least 29 dead, the air company said

* Iran's president said that the West had lost the confrontation with Tehran over the Islamic Republic's nuclear program

* The U.S. Discovery space shuttle has successfully undocked from the International Space Station, a NASA official said

* Police in south Afghanistan seized what is believed to be the largest amount of hashish ever discovered by law enforcement officers anywhere in the world, local officials have said

* A gasoline truck exploded at the Pul-e-Charkhi prison in Afghanistan's capital Kabul, killing four people, the country's Defense Ministry said

* The Israeli Cabinet has discussed a possible truce in the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip, but plans will continue for a ground operation in case it fails, a spokesperson for the country's premier said

* A lawyer for an alleged Russian arms dealer in custody in Thailand on suspicion of illegal arms trading and other crimes, said his client is unlikely to be extradited to the United States

* At least 13 Pakistani border guards have been killed in a U.S. airstrike, Afghanistan's Bakhtar news agency has said

* Kosovo's parliament has approved a national anthem just days before the country's landmark Constitution comes into force, local media said

* Authorities in Hong Kong have ordered a cull of all live poultry at markets and shops after the H5N1 bird flu virus was detected at four markets, local media reported

* Post mortems on dolphins found beached along the Cornish coast in southwest England, failed to establish a concrete reason for their deaths, but environmentalists said they may have been "scared ashore"

* The last woman executed in Europe for witchcraft is to be exonerated more than 200 years after she was beheaded in Switzerland, national media reported

* India is planning to raise its military budget by 50% to almost $40 billion, making military expenditure 3% of the annual gross domestic product (GDP), the defense minister said

* U.S.-led forces have killed four civilians along with several militants in east Afghanistan during an attack on a Taliban hideout, a NATO spokesman in Kabul said

* The U.S. secretary of state has said that while Russia has proved a valuable partner on certain issues over the past eight years, Washington is disappointed by the way the country has developed

* The European Commission is holding an international conference in Brussels for countries willing to donate to the social and economic development of Kosovo, the EU executive body said

* A nine-year-old girl was killed by Israeli tank fire and a Hamas militant was shot dead during an Israeli military operation in the Gaza Strip on Wednesday, local medics said

* Chinese insurance companies have so far paid out $41 million to people left homeless or bereaved following the May 12 earthquake, official news agency Xinhua said

BUSINESS

* France's Areva and Kazakhstan's national Kazatomprom have signed a deal to produce 4,000 metric tons of uranium a year until 2039, the nuclear companies said in a joint news release

* Gazprom will extend its gas supply contract by 35 years with Germany's Wintershall Erdgas Handelshaus GmbH (WIEH), trading in natural gas in a number of European countries, the Russian energy giant

* German direct investment in Russia rose 9% year-on-year in 2007, to reach over $1 billion, Russia's statistics service said