Main news of July 3

RUSSIA

* Roman Abramovich, the Russian billionaire owner of Chelsea FC, has quit as governor of a remote Far East region, the Kremlin press service said

* Russia's President Dmitry Medvedev said that United States presidential candidate John McCain's pledge to seek Russia's expulsion from the G8 if elected was not a serious statement

* The new United States ambassador to Russia, career diplomat John Beyrle, arrived in Moscow, the American Embassy said

* Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich is close to securing a deal to bring attacking midfielder Andrei Arshavin, the star of Russia's Euro-2008 campaign, to Chelsea soccer club, media reports said

* Construction of some venues for the 2014 Winter Olympic Games in Sochi should be moved from a national park to alternative sites, Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said

WORLD

* Poland and the U.S. have reached a tentative agreement on the deployment of an American missile base in Poland, a leading Polish TV channel reported

* The OSCE Parliamentary Assembly adopted resolutions:

 - urging Russia to avoid steps that compromise Georgia's sovereignty in its breakaway provinces

- condemning the 1932-33 famine in Ukraine but falling short of recognizing it as an act of genocide

* A UN tribunal overturned a conviction for a former Bosnian Muslim commander, Naser Oric, sentenced to a prison term for war crimes against Serbs in 1992-1993 during the Bosnian War

* Egypt opened the Rafah border point to let stranded Palestinians return to the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip, the Egyptian MENA news agency reported

* Georgian authorities said an assassination attempt was made on the Georgian-appointed head of the South Ossetian administration, Dmitry Sanakoyev

* Michel Platini, the president of European soccer's governing body, said Ukraine and Poland have problems in preparations for hosting Euro 2012 

BUSINESS

* Russia's migration authorities granted work permits to eight foreign top managers of Russian-British joint oil venture TNK-BP, including CEO Robert Dudley, after a delay amid a shareholders' row

* Russia plans to export 68 billion cubic meters of natural gas to China annually by 2020, the president of the Russian Gas Union said

* Russia is prepared to buy Turkmen natural gas at market prices and there is no need for Turkmenistan to implement energy projects with other countries, a Russian presidential aide said

* Gazprom and Azerbaijan have agreed to start talks on Azerbaijani natural gas sales to the Russian energy giant, the company's chief executive, Alexei Miller, said