Main News of June 28

A roundup of what has happened in the past 24 hours

WORLD

* The father of fugitive former CIA employee Edward Snowden, believed to be in hiding in Russia’s Sheremetyevo airport, has said that his son is not a traitor and could return to the United States if he received certain

* The consortium operating Azerbaijan’s offshore Shah Deniz gas field announced that it has chosen the Trans Adriatic Pipeline (TAP), which travels through Greece, Albania and under the Adriatic Sea to Italy, as the route it will use to pump Caspian gas to Western Europe

RUSSIA

* The state roster of “foreign agents” among Russian nongovernmental organizations finally added its first entry a year after it was established, the Justice Ministry said

* Russia’s embassy in Damascus, as well as its naval base in the port of Tartus, are continuing to perform regular operations, though “in very stressful and unsafe conditions,” Russia’s foreign minister said

* A bill was submitted to parliament seeking to strip the Russian Academy of Sciences of its right to manage its own property

* A St. Petersburg court has ordered a gay rights activist to pay compensation to the lawmaker responsible for the city’s controversial law banning “gay propaganda”