Main News of June 7

A roundup of what has happened in the past 24 hours

WORLD

* UN-Arab League envoy Kofi Annan said his six-point peace plan for Syria is "not being implemented."

* Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said that the UN Security Council would not allow a mandate on the intervention into Syria.

* The United States that leads the Friends of Syria group has called on members of the international community to introduce separate sanctions against the Bashar al-Assad regime to step up pressure on the country’s leadership.

* A U.S. House of Representatives panel unanimously approved a bill that seeks to deny visas to a group of Russian officials allegedly linked to lawyer Sergei Magnitsky’s death.

* The European Union expressed its concern over Russia’s controversial new legislation that increases penalties for participation in unauthorized demonstrations.

* The presidents of four Latin American countries - Mexico, Chile, Colombia and Peru - have signed an integration agreement in the north Chilean city of Antofagasta to establish a new economic association - the Pacific Alliance, Mexican TV channel Televisa reported.

* A former governor of Russia’s Irkutsk, Dmitry Mezentsev has been named the next secretary-general of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO).

* The only survivor of a May 30 border post massacre in southwestern Kazakhstan has confessed to killing all 15 victims - 14 border guards and one civilian.

 

RUSSIA

* Russia and Kazakhstan agreed to extend their bilateral Friendship Treaty, originally signed in 1992, for an additional 10 years.

* Moscow considers a new massacre in Syria, which has claimed the lives of scores of civilians, as a vicious and despicable provocation aimed at hampering implementation of the Annan plan, the Russian Foreign Ministry said.

* The Russian government has approved the agreements for the country's accession to the World Trade Organization (WTO) and sent them to the State Duma, the lower chamber of the Russian parliament, for ratification, Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev said.

* Moscow accused Washington of seeking to undermine the stability in the Caucasus by supporting Georgia’s idea of issuing “neutral passports” for the breakaway regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia.

* The Moscow City Court upheld a district court’s decision to ban gay parades in Moscow for the next 100 years.

* Soviet People’s Artist Eduard Khil, commonly known in the West as Mr. Trololo, was buried in St. Petersburg’s Smolenskoye Cemetry.

* There will be no prisoner swap involving convicted Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout and former Federal Security Service (FSB) Colonel Valery Mikhailov who was sentenced for spying for the United States, a top Russian security service official said.

* Russia’s Constitutional Court ruled that any limitations on travel abroad by people with access to state secrets should depend on the sensitivity of classified information and not be decided formalistically.

* Imprisoned former oil magnate and outspoken Kremlin critic Mikhail Khodorkovsky has called on the head of Russia's Supreme Court to overturn the second conviction against him.

* More than two-thirds of Russians think the Kremlin should begin negotiations with the opposition, but only half of them believe it will happen, according to a new poll by independent Levada Center.

BUSINESS

* Russia's largest nickel producer, Norilsk Nickel, saw its 2011 net profit increase 17.4 percent year-on-year to $3.626 billion to IFRS, the firm said in a statement.

* Russia’s Agriculture Ministry will end intervention in the country's grain market this week, Deputy Agriculture Minister Ilya Shestakov said.

SCIENCE

* Russian amateur astronomer Leonid Yelenin has become the first Russian to receive the prestigious Edgar Wilson Award for his discovery of a new comet using amateur equipment.

SPORTS

Russia's tennis star Maria Sharapova reached her first French Open final after a comfortable straight-sets win over world No. 4 Petra Kvitova.

The Russian pair of Maria Kirilenko and Nadia Petrova reached the women’s doubles final at the French Open after ousting Czech fifth seeds Lucia Hradecka and Andrea Hlavackova.

* The British government will boycott Euro 2012, citing concerns about justice in co-host country Ukraine, the UK Foreign Office said.