Main news of July 16

A roundup of what has happened in the past 24 hours

WORLD

*Finland has refused to sign an agreement with Russia on family and civil cases, Russia's ombudsman for children's rights said

*Belarus will never cave in to Russia's threats to stop transiting oil and gas through Belarusian pipelines, President Alexander Lukashenko said

*Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko said that he sees no other candidates among the opposition in upcoming presidential elections

*Average global temperatures from January-June 2010 have been the warmest since records began in 1880, a report issued on the U.S. Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration website said

*Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov will take part in the International Conference on Afghanistan in Kabul on July 20, a Foreign Ministry spokesman said

*Fidel Castro, Cuba's 83-year-old revolutionary leader, made his fourth public appearance in the past 8 days, visiting the National Aquarium in Havana, the popular Cuban website CubaDebate reported

*Russian President Dmitry Medvedev will begin a working visit to Italy on July 23, the Kremlin press service said

*The United States will keep on reminding Russia that those guilty of murdering human rights activist Natalya Estemirova still must be found as a year passed on after her death, a spokesman for the Department of State said

*Iranian nuclear scientist Shahram Amiri, thought by Tehran to have been abducted by the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), came to the United States on his own will and left, a spokesman for the Department of State said

*Georgia's President Mikheil Saakashvili says he hopes Belarus would not give its vote for the sovereignty of former Georgian republics of Abkhazia and South Ossetia

RUSSIA

*Russia's state arms exporter Rosoboronexport said its orders so far this year had exceeded $38 billion

*Temperatures in Moscow on Friday reached 33 degrees Celsius (91 degrees Fahrenheit), breaking a 70-year record, Fobos meteorological center said

*Investigators have interviewed more than 600 people as part of investigations into the murder of rights activist Natalya Estemirova, Russia's special investigations committee said

*Residents in a block of flats in eastern Moscow were horrified to find that their heating was on full blast, despite record high temperatures outside, due to a technical glitch

*A group of Russian lawmakers hope to cut the use of the criminal justice system to pressure businesses by requiring that a complaint be filed before investigators can open criminal cases for economic crimes, a Russian business daily reported

*Russian art experts fear dozens of works of art including religious icons may have been damaged or destroyed in a fire at an art center in Moscow but officials said it could take days to properly assess the damage caused by the blaze

*VEB-Leasing, a subsidiary of one of Russia's largest banks, Vnesheconombank (VEB), may replace Russian State Technology Corporation Rostekhnologii in a $2.5 billion contract to lease 50 Boeing passenger planes for the country's flagship carrier Aeroflot, Kommersant business daily said

*Dutch football trainer Guus Hiddink will get 95 million rubles ($3.1 million) from Roman Abramovich's National Football Academy for his 2010 work with the Russian national team, a Russian daily reported

*'Russian Giant' Nikolai Valuev (50-2, 34 KOs) said he is ready to fight Ukraine's WBC Heavyweight Champion Vitali Klitschko (40-2, 38 KOs) even for $1.5 million after 'Dr. Ironfist' offended him in an Internet video, BoxingScene.com website reported

*Russia's Mission Control will readjust the orbit of the International Space Station (ISS) by raising it by 3.7 kilometers (2.3 miles), a Mission Control spokesman said