* Russia's Foreign Ministry said the United States cannot deploy a missile shield in Central Europe and at the same time accept Russia's offer for the use of the Gabala radar in Azerbaijan
* Former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev said a multi-polar world was the key to global security, and criticized the Bush administration's efforts to dominate world politics. He also accused the U.K. of trying to please only the United States at the expense of other partners
* Four Russian diplomats, whose expulsion London demanded amid a dispute over the Alexander Litvinenko murder case, have left Britain, a Russian Embassy official said
* Russia's industrial safety regulator said it would establish a system for exchanging information with the UN nuclear watchdog to ensure radiation safety this year
* The Strategic Missile Forces will conduct more than 100 exercises this summer and fall, the press service said
* Russia's chief sanitary doctor upheld the Moscow mayor's initiative to make students take drug tests
* Police in the Ramenskoye district, southeast of Moscow, discovered and burned 40 tons of cannabis growing wild in fields, a local police spokesman said
* Russia's Progress M-59 space cargo ship will be undocked from the International Space Station (ISS) August 1 and de-orbited into the Pacific, a representative of Mission Control said
* Yutair, Russia's largest helicopter operator, sent a helicopter to Greece, which has been severely hit by forest fires, an airline spokesman said
* The Russian Navy denied media reports of an explosion aboard a nuclear submarine under repair in Severodvinsk on the White Sea to Russia's north
* The Russian government will recommend Deputy Prime Minister Sergei Naryshkin as chairman of the board of directors of the emerging United Shipbuilding Corporation, a first deputy prime minister said
WORLD
* A powerful explosion, which witnesses said was detonated by a suicide bomber close to the Red Mosque in Pakistan's capital, killed at least 10 people, local television said
* U.S. President George W. Bush signed a law toughening control over foreign investment in key businesses in a move to address national security concerns and avoid foreign governments gaining control of U.S. firms
* The launch of space shuttle Endeavour to the International Space Station (ISS) will go ahead as planned on August 7, and will not be delayed due to an earlier reported sabotage, a NASA expert in Russia said
* Moldovan President Vladimir Voronin said Moldova is turning to the international community for assistance to overcome the effects of a disastrous drought that has scorched more than 80% of the country
* Kanwa, a Hong Kong defense news agency, said purchases by China of Russian aircraft carrier components suggested that Beijing was planning to build one or two aircraft carriers, possibly by 2015
BUSINESS
* Alexander Voloshin was reelected board chairman at Russian electricity monopoly Unified Energy System (UES), the company said in a press release
* Eduard Rebgun, the bankruptcy receiver of battered oil company Yukos, submitted a request to the Moscow Arbitration Court for receivership proceedings to be prolonged by six months, his press secretary said
* Russian energy giant Gazprom [GAZP] has acquired controlling stakes in wholesale generating companies OGK-2 and OGK-6, as well as minor stakes in three territorial generating firms, the head of Unified Energy System said
* Russia's finance minister said the price of Urals crude will average at $63-65 per barrel in 2007, with the federal annual budget being based on a price of $61
* A regulator is demanding the U.S.' Transmeridian Exploration be stripped of an operational license for the Gasha oil field in the Russian southern republic of Daghestan, citing agreement violations, Russia's natural resources ministry said
* The MICEX bourse said trading in securities hit 227 billion rubles ($8.9 billion), a record since the stock exchange was established in 1997
* The Russian automaker Severstal-Avto and one of Japan's leading truck producers, Isuzu, will sign an agreement July 30 to set up a joint venture, Severstalavto-Isuzu, the Russian company said
* Boeing set up a joint venture with Russia's VSMPO-Avisma, the world's largest titanium producer, to make components for the U.S. aviation giant's super-light Dreamliner passenger aircraft
* Russian private investment group Interros informed the largest shareholders in Power Machines that it planned to sell its 30.4% stake in the engineering company
* Russian-British joint oil venture TNK-BP said it plans to sell Buguruslanneft, one of its production units between the Volga and the Urals
