Main news of July 27

A roundup of what has happened in the past 24 hours

WORLD

 

* At least 11 people were shot dead by police near Damascus, Al Arabiya News reported, citing rights groups.

 * The streets surrounding the site of last Friday’s terrorist car bombing in Oslo have resembled a ghost town for the last few days, with windows boarded up and signs on many saying they are currently closed for business

* Kosovo special police forces will pull back from the administrative border with Serbia following an agreement between Pristina and Belgrade, Kosovo Interior Minister Bajram Rexhepi was quoted by KTV as saying

* A Ukrainian court decided not to detain former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko despite a request to do so by the prosecution at her trial on charges of abuse of office

 

RUSSIA

 

* An Arkhangelsk region court turned down ex-Yukos executive Platon Lebedev’s parole petition

* Russia’s President Dmitry Medvedev signed a law to reform Russia’s system of technical regulation and harmonize it with the technical regulation, standardization and certification systems of the post-Soviet customs bloc and the European Union

* Russia successfully test fired a Sineva submarine launched ballistic missile in the Barents Sea, Defense Ministry spokesman Col. Igor Konashenkov said

 

BUSINESS

 

* Royal Dutch Shell may invest no less than $1 billion in geological exploration and production of shale gas in the Kharkiv region in north-east Ukraine, Deputy Governor Yury Sapronov said on the regional government website

* A unified real estate tax may be imposed from 2013 in four to six Russian regions as a pilot project to replace existing land and property taxes, Deputy Finance Minister Sergei Shatalov said