Main News of June 6

A roundup of what has happened in the past 24 hours

RUSSIA

* Russian President Vladimir Putin and his wife, Lyudmila, announced on nationwide television that their marriage is over, ending years of media speculation about the couple’s relationship

* Russia’s security services have shut down a terrorist group, members of which were active in Afghanistan against NATO coalition forces, a statement issued by Russia’s National Antiterrorism Committee (NAK) said

* Russia is committed to ensuring conditions for its permanent naval presence in the Mediterranean, where it has legitimate national security interests, President Vladimir Putin said

* Moscow insists that all countries with any influence on the situation in Syria, including Iran, should attend an international peace conference despite Western nations opposing this, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said

* A Russian microsatellite is having a communication problem but it is too soon to suggest it has been lost, a federal space agency representative said

* The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) ruled that Russian authorities did not bear direct responsibility for the death of Chechen separatist leader Aslan Maskhadov

* A Mil Mi-8 helicopter with four crewmembers has gone missing in Russia’s Far East, a spokesman for Russia’s Voluntary Association of Assistance to the Army, Air Force and Navy (DOSAAF) said

WORLD

* Syria has the right to strike Israel in case of any possible Israeli attacks in the future, Al Arabiya reported citing Ahmad Shalash, a member of the Syrian parliament

* US soldier Robert Bales charged with massacring 16 people, nine of them children, in southern Afghanistan last year pleaded guilty in an attempt to avoid a death penalty, CBSNews.com reported

* Ten months after it landed on Mars, NASA’s Curiosity rover has reached a turning point in its mission and is getting ready for a road trip to a massive Martian mountain, where scientists hope it will help them to learn more about the Red Planet, NASA said