Main News of July 11

A roundup of what has happened in the past 24 hours

WORLD

 

* Russia accused the United States, Britain and France of intentionally making a large number of groundless allegations of chemical weapons use in Syria in order to complicate efforts to arrange a UN investigation.

* Kiev and NATO have launched a joint project to rid Ukraine of radioactive waste left over from the Soviet era, Ukraine’s envoy to the North Atlantic alliance said.

* Moscow has officially informed Kiev that it will not use a carrier-deck pilot training site in Crimea this year, the Ukrainian Defense Ministry said.

 

RUSSIA

 

* A Moscow court found deceased whistle-blowing lawyer Sergei Magnitsky guilty of tax evasion, in the culmination of a high-profile case that prompted widespread international criticism of the Russian legal system.

* The financial cost of corruption uncovered in the Russian Armed Forces this year has soared 450 percent from last year to over 4.4 billion rubles ($130 million), the Prosecutor General’s Office reported.

* Russian soldiers’ cutting-edge combat gear has not been put into service yet due to delays in the fine-tuning of the new set’s light weapons, a senior defense official said.

* Police detained two more suspects in a deadly street fight that ignited an ethnic conflict in a small Russian town, a regional lawmaker said

* Two Russian heavy-lift transport planes delivered a total of 70 metric tons of humanitarian aid to Palestinian refugees in Syria, Russia’s Emergency Situations Ministry said.

* The former commander of Russia’s acclaimed Swifts aerobatics team was fined $25,000 (775,000 rubles) for attempting to accept a $1,000 bribe to let a subordinate skip duty.

* Police in Russia’s capital have seized more than 150 kilograms of heroin, worth an estimated $60 million, in the past 10 days, Russia’s drug czar said.

* Five builders working at the site of Russia’s newest cosmodrome in the Far East have been fired for illegal drug use, the Federal Drug Control Service (FSKN) said.

 

BUSINESS

 

* Moscow-based EuroChem, one of the world’s top ten fertilizer producers, intends to build a $1.5 billion fertilizer plant in the United States with financial support from the state of Louisiana, the company said.

 

SPORTS

 

* Russian billionaire and owner of the National Basketball Association’s (NBA) Brooklyn Nets, Mikhail Prokhorov, is facing an astronomical $70 million luxury tax bill for surpassing the league’s team salary cap limit.

* Angolan international defender Bastos has signed a three-year contract with a Russian Premier League football team, the Russian side announced.

* Chinese divers Zheng Shuangxue and Chen Ye won World University Games gold in the three-meter synchronized springboard in the Russian city of Kazan.