Main News of June 10

A roundup of what has happened in the past 24 hours

WORLD

* Israel has given Russia an official reply to its offer to send peacekeepers to the Golan Heights, but does not want to make that reply public, an Israeli deputy foreign minister told RIA Novosti on Monday. Other Israeli officials have revealed contradictory feelings about the offer

* Explosions and ensuing gunfight broke off near the Kabul International Airport early on Monday morning after militants seized a nearby building under construction, Xinhua news agency reported

* Edward Snowden, a 29-year-old former employee of the CIA and the National Security Agency (NSA), unmasked himself as a source of recent disclosures about US government’s secret surveillance programs, The Guardian daily reported

RUSSIA

* The nationalist Liberal Democratic Party’s candidate for mayor of Moscow said Russia’s capital must rid itself of foreign migrants within three years to give more jobs to Russian residents

* Resolving differences between Russia and the United States over missile defense is key to developing bilateral relations, a senior Russian lawmaker said

* The US administration does not regard Russia as a rival in security matters but views Moscow as a partner with whom it can jointly resolve global issues, the US ambassador to Russia said

* A Russian nuclear icebreaker has reached a drifting polar research station and is preparing to evacuate its stranded scientists, a spokesman for the ship's operator Atomflot said

POLITICS

* The White House declined Monday to comment on the revelation by a former CIA employee of an extensive government surveillance program but said a broad social debate on balancing national security and citizen’s privacy would be “absolutely appropriate”

* An amorphous pro-government group publicly backed by Russian President Vladimir Putin tried to distance itself from politics Monday, saying it would focus on civic activism – often the domain of opposition figures – and does not want to replace the country’s current ruling party

CRIME

* Police officers in the Russian republic of Tatarstan in the Volga Federal District have detained a man suspected of 65 sexual assaults on women, the local Interior Ministry reported

* Russian President Vladimir Putin identified a number of key public safety concerns Monday, instructing officials to focus on extremism, ethnically aligned criminal groups and illegal migration, following a pattern in which Russian officials have been suggesting a link between the three

DEFENSE

* The US Air Force has for the first time fired a missile from an F-35 fighter jet, edging the aircraft that is being developed for the US military and a dozen other countries closer to combat readiness, a spokeswoman for the project said

BUSINESS

* Russian energy giant Gazprom will not participate in the privatization of the Greek gas monopoly DEPA due to a lack of guarantees that the Greek firm’s financial standing will not decline, a Gazprom spokesman said