Main News of August 5

A roundup of what has happened in the past 24 hours

POLITICS

* Billionaire Mikhail Prokhorov’s political party has been withdrawn from elections in Yaroslavl, after the Russian city’s mayor, who backed the party, was arrested on corruption charges, news reports said

RUSSIA

* Russia’s Interior Ministry said Monday that it had opened a criminal case regarding an American rock musician’s apparent desecration of a Russian flag at a recent concert in Ukraine

* Launches of Russia’s Proton rockets will restart in September, ending a suspension imposed after an accident last month, the head of Russia’s Federal Space Agency said

* Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin heavily criticized Russia’s space industry on Monday, lambasting technical incompetence and calling for structural reform across the whole sector during a meeting of a commission appointed to investigate a high-profile launch failure last month

* Four environmental activists in southern Russia who once made controversial allegations about real estate linked to Russian President Vladimir Putin have been given lengthy jail terms for extorting money from a real estate developer, Russian media reported

* Russia has not received any official notification that US President Barack Obama intends to cancel a planned bilateral meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow next month, Putin’s spokesman said

CRIME

* Investigators have opened a criminal case into the apparent fatal stabbing of a well-known Orthodox Christian priest after his body was discovered in the northwestern Russian city of Pskov on Monday, the Investigative Committee reported

DEFENSE

* A new attack missile boat has started sea trials with Russia’s Caspian Flotilla, the Southern Military District said