Main News of August 13

A roundup of what has happened in the past 24 hours

WORLD

* The father of a Chechen immigrant who was shot and killed in May by a Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) agent investigating the Boston Marathon bombing said Tuesday his son had done nothing wrong

* A Russian man who faces decades in prison for allegedly participating in the largest hacking scheme ever prosecuted in the United States has pleaded not guilty in federal court in New Jersey, US media reported

* The United Nations Mission in Darfur is negotiating with Sudanese rebels for the release of a Russian-made helicopter and its three crewmembers, a mission spokesman said

RUSSIA

* US-Russian relations are so important that it is impossible to put them on hold, a Kremlin aide said Tuesday, days after US President Barack Obama called for a “pause” in relations with Russia

* Gazprom Neft, the oil arm of Russia’s state-owned gas monopoly, has signed a strategic cooperation agreement with US energy services giant Halliburton to facilitate technological exchanges that will help increase production, the Russian company said

* A Moscow court issued an arrest warrant Tuesday for fugitive Russian real estate tycoon Sergei Polonsky, who is currently living in Israel and has submitted an application for Israeli citizenship

POLITICS

* The Russian and Azerbaijani state oil companies on Tuesday agreed to establish a joint venture on a parity basis to prospect and produce oil and gas in Russia and Azerbaijan and in other countries as Russian President Vladimir Putin paid a one-day working visit to Baku

BUSINESS

* Russia’s Central Bank said Tuesday that gross domestic product would grow a meager 2 percent this year, with actual output falling slightly behind potential

CRIME

* At least five aircraft have been hit by laser pointers that can blind pilots over the past few days at airports in Russia’s two biggest cities, reviving calls to criminalize such attacks

DEFENSE

* Russia's Izhmash arms factory, manufacturer of the legendary Kalashnikov assault rifle, has been renamed the Kalashnikov Concern and will soon integrate several other defense plants into the new holding, the enterprise said