Main news of July 13

RUSSIA

* BP rejected proposals made at a board meeting of TNK-BP by a group of four Russian billionaires that jointly own 50% in the Russian-British joint venture, Russian shareholders said

* The United Kingdom's First Sea Lord, Admiral Sir Jonathon Band, will visit Russia July 13-19, the British embassy in Moscow said

* Trade between Russia and Belarus could top $32 billion in 2008 compared with over $26 billion in 2007, Secretary of the Russia-Belarus Union State Pavel Borodin said

* Two policemen were killed in an attack by unidentified assailants in the Republic of Kabardino-Balkaria in Russia's volatile North Caucasus region, the republican investigative committee said

WORLD

* Hollywood actress Angelina Jolie gave birth to twins at a hospital in southern France, local media reported

* A prominent Polish politician and former foreign minister, Bronislaw Geremek, died in a traffic accident, the Polish TV channel TVN24 reported

* European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana and Iranian security council chief Saeed Jalili will discuss in Geneva on July 19 a format of further nuclear talks, Iran's Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki said

* Russian energy giant Gazprom and Iran's Ministry of Petroleum will sign a memorandum of cooperation in the oil and gas sphere, Iranian Deputy Oil Minister Hossein Noghrehkar Shirazi said

* Pfleiderer AG, a Germany-based producer of engineered wood products, will invest 144 million euros ($227.5 million) in building a new fiberboard plant in northwestern Russia, a company source said

* A new large oil deposit with estimated reserves of more than 1 billion barrels of crude has been discovered in Iran, the Iranian oil minister said

* Two bears killed a visitor at a zoo in southern Ukraine after the man tried to make a photo together with the animals, the Ukrainian TV channel 5 reported