2009 Review: June

RIAN News Service looks back at the main events of the outgoing year; below the month-by-month review of 2009 continues, with June:

June 2

* Japan's Nissan Motor Company opens a car plant in St. Petersburg at a ceremony attended by Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin

June 3

* The U.S. government admits to accidentally publishing "highly confidential" information on hundreds of civilian nuclear sites, including detailed maps showing fuel stockpiles, on the internet

* Russian uranium trader Tekhsnabexport signs a contract with U.S. firm Exelon to supply enriched uranium in 2014-2020

June 4

* U.S. President Barack Obama calls for a new beginning in relations between the United States and the Muslim world at a long-awaited speech in Egypt

June 11

* The World Health Organization (WHO) declares its first flu pandemic of the 21st century following an emergency meeting on the swine flu outbreak that has hit 74 countries

June 12

* The parliament of Georgia unanimously passes resolutions on the formal withdrawal of the former Soviet republic from the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS)

June 13

* Iran's hardline incumbent President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad wins the June 12 election with 63% of the votes cast in his favor, leaving his rival, reformist former prime minister Mir-Hossein Mousavi, far behind

June 19

* European Union leaders unanimously endorse Jose Manuel Barroso for a second five-year term as president of the 27-nation bloc's executive body, the European Commission

June 22

* The president of Russia's volatile southern republic of Ingushetia, Yunus-bek Yevkurov, is hospitalized after being seriously injured in an assassination attempt

June 25

* U.S. President Barack Obama extends sanctions against North Korea for one more year as the reclusive country is still considered a threat to the United States

* Russia's Supreme Court overturns not-guilty verdicts for three men charged over the 2006 murder of investigative journalist Anna Politkovskaya and orders a retrial

* 'King of Pop' Michael Jackson dies of a heart attack in Los Angeles at the age of 50