Main news of June 9

RUSSIA

* Russia has destroyed and sent for scrap about 20 intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBM) and 12 mobile missile launchers since the start of 2008, the Strategic Missile Forces (SMF) said

* A pair of Russian Tu-95 Bear strategic bombers took off Monday from the Engels airbase in central Russia on a routine patrol flight over the Arctic Ocean, an Air Force spokesman said

* Kosovo's internationally backed independence has failed to promote stability in the region, the Russian foreign minister said after a meeting with his Cypriot counterpart

* Moscow is considering resuming deliveries of Russian arms to Afghanistan, Russia's first deputy foreign minister said

* Russia has received three plots of land in Jericho in the West Bank, a RIA Novosti correspondent said from a ceremony in Moscow to hand over land ownership deeds

* British intelligence is making attempts to establish control over EU political institutions by means of a series of accusations that allege widespread Russian spying, a high-ranking Russian security official said

* Two men were arrested in Moscow on charges of setting up a pyramid scheme that defrauded around 250,000 people of 18 billion rubles ($765 million), the Interior Ministry said

* A new nuclear icebreaker will be built in Russia by 2015, the head of the state nuclear corporation Rosatom said after signing an agreement with the leadership of the northern Murmansk Region

WORLD

* The lawyer for Viktor Bout, an alleged Russian arms dealer in custody in Thailand, confirmed that a hearing on a request for his client's extradition to the U.S. had been postponed

* Global military spending totaled almost $1.34 trillion in 2007, a real-term increase of 45% since 1998, or some $200 a year for every person in the world, a prominent political think-tank said

* Greece is continuing to be hit by aftershocks following Sunday's earthquake, which killed two and injured 192, the country's state television said

* NASA astronauts Mike Fossum and Ron Garan have completed their third and final spacewalk, a mission control spokesman said

* Victoria Nuland, the permanent U.S. representative to NATO, she would like to see Russia as a member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization

* Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak declared a nationwide campaign to slow down population growth in the Arab world's most populous nation

* Rescue workers have located 21 miners in a coal mine in eastern Ukraine following a methane blast that killed one miner, a spokeswoman for the local mine safety watchdog said

* An anthrax outbreak has hit south Kyrgyzstan, where two people are reported to have died of the disease and six others hospitalized with similar symptoms, health officials in the Central Asian state said

* The Russian Foreign Ministry has condemned Sunday's terrorist bomb attacks in the Algerian capital that local media say killed 12 people

 

BUSINESS 

* Russia's gas monopoly Gazprom and largest coal producer SUEK have dropped plans to merge their electricity and coal assets worth $16 billion, but signed a strategic cooperation deal, the companies said in a joint news release

* Russia's largest gold producer Polyus Gold announced that its net consolidated profit calculated to International Financial Reporting Standards fell 96% year-on-year in 2007 to $47.1 million

* A probe into alleged violations of labor and migration laws by the Russian-British oil venture TNK-BP will be completed by July, a Moscow district prosecutor's office said

* Russia's state-controlled crude producer Rosneft said its US GAAP net income increased 600% year-on-year in the first quarter of 2008 to $2.56 billion

* Russia and the EU have agreed to cooperate on seven border area development programs, worth a total of over 600 million euros, the Russian regional development minister said