Main News of June 18

A roundup of what has happened in the past 24 hours

WORLD

 

* The heads of government of the world’s biggest economic powers urged the conflicting sides in the Syrian civil war to destroy or expel all al-Qaida affiliates fighting in the country.

* The G-8 statement on Syria goes further than anticipated in backing a United Nation investigation into the alleged use of chemical weapons in the country, British Prime Minister David Cameron stressed.

* Iran has no plans to send troops to aid Syrian President Bashar Assad's forces in the ongoing civil war there, an Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman said, rejecting media reports claiming Tehran was set to intervene directly in the fighting.

* Self-styled “sextremist” topless protesters from Ukrainian feminist group Femen were dispersed by police in Kiev overnight after attempting to storm a building where the Belarusian president was staying, the group said on its website.

 

RUSSIA

 

* Russian President Vladimir Putin admitted that disagreements over the deployment of a US missile shield in Europe still remain, but Moscow and Washington should boost the transparency of actions related to the dispute.

* Russia and the United States will bear primary responsibility for developing a peace plan for Syria, Russian President Vladimir Putin said at a press conference following a summit of the Group of Eight major industrial nations in Northern Ireland.

* Russia will develop a national plan to deal with offshore tax havens, President Vladimir Putin said.

* Russian lawmakers have unanimously approved amendments banning the adoption of Russian children by foreign couples in same-sex relationships, in a second reading vote on a broader bill.

* Russia has paid off a $2 billion Soviet-era debt to Serbia and Slovakia, the Russian Finance Ministry said.

* Russia has seen both the number of young people in the country and their share in the total population decline steadily in recent years, an Education Ministry official said.

* Chechnya’s Kremlin-backed leader has launched an education campaign to persuade local youth not to take part in the Syrian conflict, according to an interview published on his government's official website.

* Russian investigators have launched a formal enquiry into a senior executive at the country's biggest airline, Aeroflot, over allegations he abused his authority by lobbying in favor of deals with tour companies owned by his family, the Investigative Committee said.

* The number of minors behind bars in Russia has fallen by over 70 percent in the last five years, a prison service official said.

* The Aral Sea, which has been shrinking for almost half a century causing an environmental disaster in Central Asia, has finally stopped drying up, a Russian scientist said.

 

BUSINESS

 

* Russian energy giant Gazprom avoided making a final investment decision Tuesday on the giant Shtokman field in the Arctic amid falling European demand and cheap shale gas in the United States.

* Russia’s largest diamond miner Alrosa plans to spend $10-20 million annually on diamond prospecting in Angola as part of a new joint venture to look for deposits in the Central African country, Alrosa said.

* Russia’s Federal Air Transport Agency (Rosaviatsia) has given local budget airline Red Wings permission to resume flight operations, which were suspended soon after a fatal incident at a Moscow airport last December, the agency said.

 

DEFENSE

 

* Russia will begin construction of a prototype of a heavy liquid-fuel intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) in 2014, a Defense Ministry source said.

* By 2020, all units of Russia’s Strategic Missile Forces (SMF) will be equipped with an advanced targeting system capable of guiding ballistic missiles through US missile defenses, a Defense Ministry source said.

* The construction of the stern for the first Mistral helicopter carrier being built for the Russian Navy will be finished in France because a Russian shipyard cannot meet the deadline specified in the contract, a senior Russian defense official said.

* At least five people were injured and some 6,000 local residents were evacuated from a village near an ammunition depot in central Russia where a fire caused massive explosions of stored artillery shells, the Emergencies Ministry said.

 

SPACE

 

* Astronauts aboard the International Space Station (ISS) have opened the hatch of a newly docked supply ship carrying more than 6.5 metric tons of cargo after a delay due to fears over bacteria, the European Space Agency (ESA) said.

* NASA has selected eight potential astronauts, out of more than 6,100 applicants, for spaceflights outside Earth’s orbit, including to asteroids and Mars.

 

SPORT

 

* Former Olympic ice dance champions Marina Anissina and Gwendal Peizerat are to reunite for a surprise comeback, hoping to qualify for next year’s winter Olympics in Sochi, Anissina

* Russian center Pavel Datsyuk said that he had signed a three-year contract extension to keep him with the NHL’s Detroit Red Wings until 2017.