Main news of June 25

RUSSIA

* A grenade blast killed one contract soldier and wounded another five during a tactical exercise in Russia's Far Eastern military district, a Defense Ministry's spokesman said

* Some 4,000 police officers will be providing security on Thursday night in Moscow during and after the live broadcast of the Euro-2008 semifinal match between Russia and Spain, a police official said

* One person was hospitalized after three subway cars derailed in northern Moscow, an emergencies services source said

* The EU-Russia summit that opens Thursday will focus on steps to draft a European security treaty and ways of meeting global economic challenges, a Russian presidential aide said

* About 500 domestic and foreign arms manufacturers will participate in an international arms exhibition to be held in the Urals Region next month, a local government official said

* The European Court of Human Rights has upheld Russia's extradition request for a Russian businessman accused of fraud, the Prosecutor General's Office said

* Prize money awarded to Russian medal winners at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, China, should be increased, the Russian sports minister said

* The number of children hit by a relatively uncommon stomach infection in the East Siberian city of Krasnoyarsk since last week has risen to 70, the region's chief sanitary doctor said

* Police in the Republic of Bashkortostan, southwest Urals, seized a total of 9.6 kg (21.2 lbs) of heroin with a street value of 10 million rubles ($424,000) from a Tajik national, a police spokesman said

* The Investigations Committee of the Russian Prosecutor General's Office has submitted a blueprint for countering corruption to a presidential anti-corruption working group, a committee spokesman said

* Russia's nuclear industry is open to both domestic and foreign investors, a Russian deputy prime minister told an international nuclear forum

* Russia's Federal Anti-Monopoly Service has not ruled out that charges of price collusion could be brought against Russia's major aviation fuel suppliers as part of an investigation into price hikes in aviation fuel, the anti-monopoly body said in a statement

*  Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said that turning the Russian ruble into a regional reserve currency was an important strategic objective

* Russia does not rule out the possibility that the U.S. and Lithuania are holding informal talks over the deployment in the former Soviet state of elements of a U.S. missile defense system, Russia's foreign minister said

* Venezuelan Vice-President Ramon Carrizales and Defense Minister Gustavo Rangel will arrive in Moscow  on a three-day official visit

WORLD

* Russia's unreasonable actions could help to speed up Georgia's accession to NATO, the Polish foreign minister said after a meeting of the New Group of Georgia's Friends in Warsaw

* Russia's former World No. 1 Marat Safin secured a place in the third round of the Wimbledon tennis tournament after overwhelming Serbia's Novak Djokovic to win in straight sets

* The first phase to build a security force for Kosovo, which unilaterally proclaimed independence on February 17, will be completed by 2009, a NATO spokesman

* An Indian car maker launched its environmentally friendly electric car in the Indian capital with city authorities pledging subsidies for buyers in a drive to lower pollution, the company's deputy head said

* A worker at a plastics plant in the U.S. state of Kentucky killed five co-workers before turning his gun on himself, local media reported

* A Minsk court handed two Belarusian traffic officers suspended sentences after they organized a make-shift roadblock using civilian cars to stop a speeding drunk driver on a highway, a court said

* The issues affecting the Palestinian-Israeli conflict should be considered by the UN Security Council and not during bilateral talks, the Palestinian envoy to Moscow said

* Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad promised to provide proof that the United States was behind an attempt on his life planned during his visit to Iraq in March

* Georgia pledged to appeal to international organizations if regular sea links are set up between its breakaway republic of Abkhazia and Russia

* U.S.-led coalition forces killed over 70 Taliban militants in a ground operation supported by air strikes in the eastern Pakistani province of Paktia on Wednesday, local authorities said

* Israel has closed Gaza border crossings after Palestinian militants launched mortars at the south of the Jewish state, violating the Egypt-sponsored truce deal reached last week, a spokeswoman for the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) said

* The lower house of the Kazakh parliament has approved in its first reading a bill to introduce a state monopoly on caviar production and sales, the parliamentary press service said

* The European Union is seeking closer ties with Russia under President Dmitry Medvedev, the EU foreign policy supremo said in an interview

BUSINESS

* Russian shareholders are preparing to attend an annual general meeting of TNK-BP Holding on Thursday despite media reports that the Russian partners were set to boycott the event

* A Belarusian oil producer and a Venezuelan oil servicing company have signed an agreement to set up a joint venture, a spokesman for state-owned Belorusneft said

* The cost of the trans-Balkan oil pipeline being built by Russia, Bulgaria, and Greece has increased to 1.5 billion euros ($2.3 billion) from 1 billion euros ($1.55 billion), the project operator said

* GAZ Group [RTS: GAZA] said on Wednesday its net income calculated to International Financial Reporting Standards increased 20% year on year in 2007 to 7.2 billion rubles ($305 million)

* LUKoil [RTS: LKOH], Russia's largest independent crude producer, said Wednesday it would increase spending on oil exploration by 17% in 2008, to 18.13 billion rubles ($768 million)