* Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Russia condemned the violence in the Gaza Strip and urged the world to join in efforts to help resolve internal Palestinian fighting
* The U.S. House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee approved a bill toughening sanctions against Iran and prohibiting any nuclear and missile cooperation with Russia
* Russia signed a bilateral agreement on accession to the World Trade Organization (WTO) with Guatemala, and completed talks with Vietnam, sources with the Russian mission at the UN and other international organizations said
* Russian First Deputy Prime Minister Sergei Ivanov said Russia was making a transition to a new stage in the development of the country's strategic and tactical nuclear arsenals
* Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said his country would be developing cooperation with NATO with an eye to the trans-Atlantic alliance's internal reforms
* Russia and the United States signed a protocol to extend bilateral cooperation in preemptive action for emergency situations, and methods of dealing with their consequences
* Poland accused Russia of building up a covert network of agents, the country's military intelligence chief said
* South Korea will begin supplying North Korea with rice as part of Seoul's promised food aid to Pyongyang on June 30, the country's unification minister said
* Olli Heinonen, deputy IAEA chief, arrived in Pyongyang at the invitation of North Korea to discuss the closure of its nuclear reactor producing weapons-grade plutonium, the Japanese agency Kyodo said
* Russian Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin said economic growth in the country this year could reach 7%
* A commission of Russia's license-issuing regulator advised its director against revoking the license for Siberia's Kovykta gas field held by operator Rusia Petroleum, a senior ministry official said
* Russia's Finance Ministry said it had started looking into a complaint filed in the spring by the federal tax authorities against PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), a Yukos auditor in 2002-04
* Russia's Federal Security Service said it was questioning a Russian national who approached the service saying he had been recruited by Britain's Secret Intelligence Service (MI6)
* Carla Del Ponte, the UN war crimes court's chief prosecutor, said only four fugitives wanted by The Hague were still at large
* The European Union and Turkey opened membership talks in two policy areas as France blocked a third 'chapter' for discussion
* International terrorist network al Qaeda could have been involved in an attack that killed six UN peacekeepers in southern Lebanon, a Lebanese newspaper said citing the country's security forces
* Israel signaled that it may accept a Russian proposal to supply military hardware to Palestinian security forces loyal to President Mahmoud Abbas, in a reversal of Tel Aviv's former position
* Observers from the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe will monitor parliamentary elections in Ukraine set for September 30, the head of the Ukrainian presidential secretariat said
* At least seven miners were killed and four were injured Monday in a methane explosion at a coal mine in Vorkuta, northern Urals, an emergencies ministry spokesperson said
* Russia's food safety watchdog Rosselkhoznadzor said it had imposed temporary restrictions on poultry imports from the Czech Republic, where a bird flu outbreak was registered last week
* Alfa Bank, Russia's largest privately-owned bank, said it had placed $500 million in Eurobonds with a five-year maturity
* Russia's nickel giant Norilsk Nickel received all necessary regulatory approval for the purchase of Canada's leading gold and nickel producer LionOre, the Russian company said in a statement
* S7 Airlines said it turned its performance around in 2006 posting net profits of 61 million rubles ($2.4 million), compared with losses in 2005 of 1 billion rubles ($38.6 million)
* A UNESCO committee declared the Galapagos Islands in Ecuador and Niokolo-koba national park in Senegal are endangered sites and have been put on the World Heritage List
* A powerful cyclone that swept along Pakistan's Arab Sea coast killed 14 people and injured dozens, local TV companies reported citing various sources
* The Russian Embassy in Beijing confirmed that a Russian citizen was killed and another severely injured Saturday in a bar brawl near a night club in the center of the Chinese capital
