Main News of June 19

A roundup of what has happened in the past 24 hours

WORLD

* US President Barack Obama proposed to cut another one-third of US and Russian nuclear arsenals, stressing that it was possible to ensure a strong deterrent while also limiting nuclear weapons

* Pyongyang reiterated its commitment to the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula on Wednesday and said it was determined to tackle the nuclear issue through negotiations

* Moscow supports Kabul’s position that peace efforts in the war-torn country should be led by the government of Afghanistan, instead of the United States, the Russian Foreign Ministry said

RUSSIA

* The Defense Ministry is setting up a field camp and preparing to send a firefighting “tank” into a central Russian military facility where a large fire erupted Tuesday evening amid multiple explosions that tore through the site and sent shrapnel flying over a kilometer

* The Baikal Pulp and Paper Mill, a longtime target of environmental activists, will be finally shut down, Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev said

* There is a pressing need for an international agency like the United Nations to regulate the Internet, a Russian lawmaker in charge of cyberspace issues said

BUSINESSS

* Shell companies have illegally funneled 760 billion rubles ($25 billion) from Russia in the past three years, outgoing Central Bank chief Sergei Ignatyev said, Vedomosti business paper reported