Main news of June 5

RUSSIA

* Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said during his visit to Germany:

- NATO's further eastward expansion would harm the bloc's relations with Russia, but there would be no confrontation

-  Russia is alarmed by "narrowing trends of mutual understanding in Euro-Atlantic policies"

- the Nord Stream pipeline being built under the Baltic Sea to pump natural gas directly from Russia to Germany serves the interests of European energy security

- Russia is ready to consider establishing international consortiums which would become operators of transit pipelines with the participation of companies from Russia, European Union, and transit countries

- all criminal cases involving attacks on journalists will be thoroughly investigated regardless of when they were committed

* Russian President Dmitry Medvedev called for a legally binding European security treaty to be signed at an all-European conference and urged NATO to halt its enlargement and missile defense plans in Europe

* The Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement it welcomed the apparent willingness of rival Palestinian factions Fatah and Hamas to enter into peace talks

* Russia's inflation hit 7.7% from January 1 to June 1 compared with 4.7% in the same period last year, the country's top statistics body said

* A total of 32 kindergarten children have been hospitalized with a virus in Russia's Republic of Khakassia, in south Siberia, where two children died earlier this week

* Russia proposed that two UN war crimes tribunals be closed down starting from 2009 and their cases passed to national courts, the Russian envoy to the United Nations said

* The three ex-military officers accused of attempting to assassinate Anatoly Chubais, the chief executive officer of Russia's electricity monopoly, were acquitted by a jury in Moscow

* Russian police have uncovered 11 radical youth groups engaging in race-hate attacks in Moscow and St. Petersburg this year, a senior Interior Ministry official said

WORLD

* The international community should review Russia's peacekeeping contingent in Georgia's breakaway regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia, three U.S. senators said in a joint statement

* The European Parliament called for the immediate withdrawal of the some 300 Russian soldiers recently deployed in Georgia's breakaway republic of Abkhazia

* A nuclear power plant in Slovenia has been shut down for several days after a water coolant leak occurred Wednesday evening, EU officials said, adding there is no danger to the environment or people

* Ukrainian defense minister Yuriy Yekhanurov said as regards military training, Ukraine and Georgia are already ready to join NATO

* Israel will complete the ratification of an agreement with Russia on visa-free travel in late June-early July, the Israeli interior minister said

* The Turkish Constitutional Court has vetoed a bill that allows female students to wear headscarves in universities, a court spokesman said

BUSINESS

* Russia's Central Bank has withdrawn the license of Moscow-based Promkreditbank over banking legislation breaches, including money laundering laws, the CBR press office said

* The market capitalization of Russian state-controlled oil producer Rosneft [RTS: ROSN] hit $129 billion as of May 30, Rosneft CEO Sergei Bogdanchikov said

* The shareholders of the Russian state-controlled oil producer Rosneft elected a new board of directors at their annual meeting

* A leading Russian engine-maker will increase production of SaM-146 engines for SuperJet-100 regional aircraft to 50 a year by 2009, the NPO Saturn CEO said