Main news of August 3

RUSSIA

* Admiral Vladimir Masorin, Russian Navy commander said:

- The Russian government allocated over 40 billion rubles (over $1.5 billion) to build a navy base in the Black Sea port of Novorossiisk

- Russia must restore its permanent naval presence in the Mediterranean

* Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said:

- Russia's is committed to its natural gas contracts after a temporary deal was made to solve a gas debt dispute with Belarus

- Russia is guided by international law in its polar shelf probes

* Russian Defense Minister Anatoly Serdyukov said the Russian Armed Forces commissioned more than 30 new types of advanced weapon systems in the first half of 2007

* Five militants were killed and three arrested in separate operations in the North Caucasus republic of Daghestan, a local police spokesman said

* A documentary featuring the political career and the hopes of Zurab Zhvania, a former Georgian premier and a key figure in the 2003 "rose revolution" in the Caucasus state, was shown to the media

* Russia's Spartak Moscow soccer club will meet Scotland's Celtic in the third qualifying round of the UEFA Champions League to decide who goes through to play in the group stages

WORLD

* Washington dismissed Russia's mission to plant its national flag on the Arctic Ocean floor as an illegitimate claim to territory

* A man who crashed a fuel-laden jeep into the front doors of Scotland's Glasgow airport in an apparent botched terrorist attack on June 30 died in the hospital, local police said

* NASA specialists are inspecting a newly installed air pressure-relief valve in the cabin of the space shuttle Endeavour, scheduled for launch next week, to ensure it is functioning properly, an agency spokesman said

* Japan will finance the scrapping of three Russian nuclear submarines decommissioned from the Pacific Fleet under a joint project with Russia, a senior Japanese diplomat said

* Belgrade and Pristina plan to hold another round of negotiations on the status of Kosovo late next week, a source in the Russian Foreign Ministry said

* The foreign ministers of Russia and the Philippines crowned their meeting by signing an agreement to facilitate travel for diplomats and officials

* India plans to start construction of the world's first advanced heavy water reactor (AHWR) using thorium as a fuel, which is less radioactive than uranium, enabling the country to ensure energy security, Asian Age reported

BUSINESS

* Gazprom confirmed that Belarus had made a $190 million installment toward its $460 million debt to the gas giant, and delayed a reduction in supplies to the country by one week

* Consumers in Europe and Russia's Baltic region of Kaliningrad will not be affected if Belarus starts tapping Russian gas from transit pipelines, a Gazprom spokesman said 

* Sakhalin Energy, the operator of the Sakhalin II oil and gas project in the Russian Far East, has signed an agreement with a Japanese energy company for liquefied natural gas (LNG) supplies