* South Korea will send the first shipment of fuel oil to North Korea July 12, a Unification Ministry spokesman said
* Russia's top prosecutor's office said British authorities' refusal to open a criminal case against fugitive oligarch Boris Berezovsky over his calls to overthrow President Vladimir Putin was unjustified
* China is close to beginning construction of its first aircraft carrier to expand the operational and strategic capabilities of the People's Liberation Army Navy (PLAN), a Chinese news agency said
* The Russian Foreign Ministry said a ministerial meeting of the UN sustainable development body, which just closed in Geneva, could help bridge the gap between rich and poor countries in their approach to development, and could increase UN leverage in global policymaking
* Russian Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin said his ministry would soon submit to the government a $1.5 billion loan proposal for Belarus, although he did not say if the application would be filed in July
* A Russian Finance Ministry source said Russia might strike a debt deal with Afghanistan by the end of this month
* A former Islamic activist living in the U.K. warned that Hizb ut-Tahrir, officially legal in Australia and Britain, is a dangerous extremist organization comprising many doctors and engineers, Australian radio said
* Japan's Defense Ministry published a document that prioritizes the broader use of the Japanese military in global peacekeeping operations and the creation of a national missile shield
* Lebanese Army forces killed three Fatah al-Islam militants as they attempted to flee the Nahr al-Bared Palestinian refugee camp, sealed off by troops, local media reported
* Russia and Vietnam successfully completed bilateral talks on Russia's accession to the World Trade Organization (WTO), the economics ministry said
* Georgia will host a multinational military exercise under the Partnership for Peace Program (PPP) July 9-20, the Defense Ministry said
* The State Duma, Russia's lower house of parliament, approved in the final, third, reading the first three-year budget seen as a transition to longer-term financial planning and designed to streamline finances and expenditures
* Talks on a new strategic partnership pact between Russia and the European Union could take three or four years, a senior Russian economics ministry official said
* The lower house of Russia's parliament adopted a law in its third reading tightening existing legislation in the fight against extremism and ratified an agreement regulating the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor project (ITER), being built in France with Russia's participation
* The Israeli military completed an air and ground operation in central Gaza and left the Palestinian enclave after 24 hours of fighting
* Following an IAEA senior official's visit to North Korea Japanese Foreign Minister Taro Aso said the country's five nuclear facilities were unlikely to be shut down before late July
* The Russian Finance Ministry predicts the sale of bankrupt oil company Yukos' assets to yield some $19.5 billion to the federal budget in August-September, a senior ministry official said
* A miner injured in a coal pit explosion in northern Russia June 25 died in hospital, bringing the death toll to 11, the Vorkutaugol company operating the mine said
* President Vladimir Putin nominated Friday the current governors of the Leningrad and Novosibirsk regions, Valery Serdyukov and Viktor Tolokonsky, to new gubernatorial terms, the presidential press service said
* Shortly after Russia's resort city of Sochi was chosen to host the 2014 Winter Olympics, the governor of St. Petersburg promised Friday that Russia's second-largest city would bid for the 2020 Summer Olympics
* Yury Luzhkov was sworn in as Moscow mayor for a fifth time after 15 years in office
