Main news of June 5

RUSSIA

* The interior minister of the southern Russian republic of Daghestan was assassinated on afternoon while at a wedding reception in the capital, Makhachkala

* Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said he intended to discuss nuclear proliferation at his upcoming meeting with U.S. President Barack Obama

* Russian President Dmitry Medvedev handed Global Energy international prizes to scientists involved in hydrocarbon and uranium exploration, and energy calculations

* Russia's President Dmitry Medvedev said in an interview that giant state corporations will inevitably be privatized

* President Dmitry Medvedev told Russia's main economic forum that the current global financial crisis has yet to reach its lowest point

* Russian President Dmitry Medvedev called for a special commission to be set up with the European Union to resolve natural gas disputes

* Russia is ready to supply to China as much natural gas as the country needs, a deputy prime minister told journalists

* Two astronauts aboard the International Space Station conducted a five-hour spacewalk to install new equipment and test new Russian-made spacesuits, Russia's Mission Control said

* Georgia is continuing to militarize even though it clearly has not ruled out using force in regard to its former republics of Abkhazia and South Ossetia, Russia's NATO envoy said

* The Russian government believes the situation in the country's financial sector is stable, First Deputy Prime Minister Igor Shuvalov said

* Russia wants to conduct a unified operation with the UN and cooperate with NATO in the fight against piracy off the coast of Somalia, Russia's envoy to NATO said

* Russia will not cut its nuclear arsenal while the U.S. missile defense plans for Europe remain unclear, the chief of the General Staff said

* Russia will deploy two full-sized armies in Belarus during large-scale joint military exercises in September, the Russian chief of General Staff said

* Former workers at a pulp mill next to Baikal, the world's deepest lake, have expanded their hunger strike over several months' wages that remain unpaid since the plant's closure last year amid environmental pressure

* The Russian communications minister said Friday that the Federal Antimonopoly Service's "interest" in the Microsoft corporation is reasonable

* A Canadian model will wear a Muslim headscarf and a Chechen national costume while broadcasting her own TV show in Russia's North Caucasus republic

WORLD

* Brazil's Air Force chief said that none of the debris recovered during a search for the wreckage of an Air France Airbus 330 that went missing off Brazil's northeast coast belonged to the aircraft

* U.S. President Barack Obama spoke out against Holocaust denial after touring Buchenwald on Friday with Germany's chancellor and two survivors of the former Nazi concentration camp

* The Ukrainian president accused Russia of seeking to monopolize the international nuclear fuel market

* Belarus will decide on its own whether to recognize the former Georgian republics of South Ossetia and Abkhazia, regardless of any foreign loans, the president said

* Ukraine's parliament voted to dismiss the defense minister, who was earlier accused of corruption by the prime minister

* A total of 21,940 people in 69 countries worldwide have been diagnosed with swine flu, with 125 deaths, the World Health Organization said on its website

* Pyongyang and Seoul have agreed to meet at a joint industrial park located in North Korea to discuss the future for the complex along with a detained South Korean employee, Yonhap news agency said

* The five permanent members of the UN Security Council 'are close' to passing a draft resolution on N. Korea which includes new sanctions against the reclusive communist regime, Russia's UN envoy said

* A woman from the northern South African province of Limpopo, who may have been the world's oldest person, died in her sleep at the age of 135, South African media reported

BUSINESS

* Russian Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin said it was inevitable that bad loans in the banking system would create a second wave in the financial crisis

* Russia's annual foreign borrowing will exceed $10 billion after next year, the finance minister said

* A reasonable minimum price for oil is $75 per barrel, Russia's first deputy prime minister said, adding that production could drop in Russia if the credit crisis persists

* The lack of major investment in the development of new Russian oil fields in the mid-term could increase the prime cost of domestic production and affect global oil prices, a billionaire co-owner of TNK-BP said

* Gold could start playing a more important role in Russia's reserves due to the influence of regional currencies, a Kremlin aide said

* Russian and German energy giants Gazprom and E.ON signed an agreement to exchange assets in downstream and upstream gas operations

* Rosneft has no plans to review its 2009 business plan, which has fixed the price of oil at $50 per barrel, the head of Russia's largest state-run oil company said

* Russia's largest diamond miner Alrosa could withdraw from an Angolan joint venture, LUO-Kamachia-Kamajiku, due to financial difficulties, the company's CEO said

* Russia's largest brewery Baltika will reduce investments by three two thirds to 100 million euros in 2009, the company's president said

* Oil prices should reach $85 per barrel by the end of 2009, the head of Russian energy giant Gazprom said