Main News of June 14

WORLD

* The Syrian government called recent White House claims about the use of chemical weapons in Syria “a statement full of lies based on fabricated information”

* The use of chemical weapons in Syria is a “matter of great concern,” NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said on Friday, but did not say what the alliance might do in response

* A Massachusetts man has learned that a rock he found on a riverbank six years ago is likely ballast that fell to earth from Russia’s now-defunct Mir space station or a space cargo vehicle that serviced it, local media reported this week

RUSSIA

* Russia is not planning to deliver S-300 air defense systems to Syria, despite the announcement by the US administration on Thursday of its intention to supply the Syrian opposition with weaponry, a presidential aide said

* Russian legislation regarding non-governmental organizations is far more liberal that of other countries, President Vladimir Putin said Friday, in an implicit response to Western criticism that recent Russian legislation on NGOs is too restrictive

* Siberian security services claimed on Friday to have prevented two incidents of high treason, but neither of the two Novosibirsk Region residents suspected of trying to sell state secrets abroad in two separate cases has been charged

* A Moscow court on Friday upheld fines imposed on Russia's Golos Association, an independent election monitoring NGO that said it would appeal the ruling in an international court

BUSINESS

* A Georgian winemaker on Friday delivered the first shipment of wine from the South Caucasus country to Russia after a seven-year ban