Main News of July 5

A roundup of what has happened in the past 24 hours

WORLD

* Fugitive former US intelligence contractor Edward Snowden has sent asylum requests to six more countries, anti-secrecy organization WikiLeaks said.

* The roommate of Ibragim Todashev, who was shot to death in May by an FBI agent during questioning in Florida, has been granted permission to stay in the United States until the end of the month, The Boston Globe reported.

 

RUSSIA

* Draft legislation to overhaul Russia’s Academy of Sciences, a network of hundreds of research institutions that the government has long accused of ineffectiveness, passed its second of three readings in the lower house of parliament.

* Moody’s Investors Service downgraded the long-term senior debt and deposit ratings of several major Russian banks following a reassessment of the Russian government’s capacity to provide monetary support to these banks in case of need.

* Russia will launch the next cargo spacecraft to the International Space Station (ISS) on schedule, despite a recent accident with a Proton-M carrier rocket, a senior Russian space official said.

* The lower house of the Russian parliament finally passed legislation creating a so-called financial mega-regulator.

* A former tax inspector included on a draft version of the Magnitsky List of Russian officials banned from the United States for human rights abuses has become a suspect for Russian investigators looking into a huge tax scam, Kommersant newspaper reported.

* A crack squad of Russian computer programmers took advantage of the home terrain to win 1st prize at the world finals of The Association of Computing Machinery’s International Computer Programming Contest (ICPC) in St. Petersburg this week, while the highest placed American team narrowly missed out on the top ten.

* Prosecutors called for six years in prison and a fine of one million rubles ($30,000) for anti-corruption campaigner Alexei Navalny in an ongoing embezzlement trial that his supporters say is designed to silence Russia's opposition.

* A Russian regional court has sentenced a US citizen and his partner in crime to seven-year jail terms for extorting an inheritance worth $4.35 million from a widow.

 

DEFENSE

* Russian President Vladimir Putin said that his armed forces must be better prepared to ward off attacks in cyberspace as well as from outer space.

* Russia will increase its number of cruise missiles by 30 times by the end of the current decade, Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said.

* A Russian-built aircraft carrier refitted for the Indian navy started final sea trials in the White Sea, the Sevmash shipbuilder announced.

* China began its largest-ever naval exercises with a foreign power, launching a week of fleet drills with Russia in the Sea of Japan.