* Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Russia was concerned that a terrorist suspect, Chechen separatist emissary Akhmed Zakayev, is apparently being granted free movement in the European Union
* Visiting Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said he would like to see Russian business expand its presence in his country, especially in the oil and gas sector
* A former Russian security service officer has admitted working for British intelligence and receiving money for the reports he provided, Russia's NTV television company said
* The State Duma adopted Russia's first draft budget for 2008-2010 in the second reading
* Russia has not supplied Iraq with Mi-17 Hip multi-purpose helicopters, a spokesman for the Russian Foreign Ministry said dismissing earlier media allegations
* The U.S. District Court in Western Pennsylvania confirmed that it had not dropped charges against former Russian Atomic Energy Minister Yevgeny Adamov
* Israel's outgoing president tendered his resignation following a plea bargain in which he confessed to sexual harassment to avoid rape charges
* Georgia's recent actions in the zone of its conflict with its breakaway republic of South Ossetia were provocative and premeditated, the Russian Defense Ministry said
* Russia's South Stream pipeline project is not politically motivated and does not threaten Nabucco, Europe's $6-billion gas pipeline project linking the energy-rich Caspian to Europe, bypassing Russia, the Gazprom head said
* Iran has invited Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf to come to Tehran to sign a tripartite gas pipeline agreement
* UN nuclear inspectors and Pyongyang reached an understanding on shutting down North Korea's main Yongbyon reactor, the Kyodo agency said
* An expert committee attached to the Japanese government concluded that the country should be able to use its missile interceptors to shoot down ballistic missiles aimed at the United States
* France's recently-elected leader, Nicolas Sarkozy, will host talks with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in Paris, to discuss the situation in the Palestinian territories
* Belarusian Prime Minister Sergei Sidorsky said the country would soon announce a tender for the construction of its first nuclear power plant
* Russia's Atomenergomash and France's Alstom signed documents establishing a joint venture to manufacture half-speed turbines for nuclear power plants
* Sberbank's shareholders approved at an annual meeting PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) as auditor for 2007, the Russian savings bank said in a report
* Russian Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin said the Russian government would soon acquire a 10.5% stake in Alrosa, the world's second-largest diamond producer, from the country's state-controlled foreign trade bank Vneshtorgbank (VTB)
* Russia's state-run arms exporter Rosoboronexport and Thales signed a document on cooperation in the production of naval equipment
* Russian metals giant Norilsk Nickel said that shareholders accounting for 90% of Canadian gold and nickel producer LionOre's stock had accepted its acquisition offer, now extended until July 10
* Russia's Federal Tax Service has restored licenses to 121 alcohol producers who had their operations suspended earlier this month in a regulatory dispute, a spokesperson for the agency said
* Russia's state-run arms exporter Rosoboronexport said it had signed a contractual agreement on the design and construction of corvettes for the Indonesian navy
* At least 20 people have died, hundreds are missing and nearly 900,000 remain stranded in the monsoon-flooded southern part of Pakistan, local authorities said
* A powerful explosion shook the Ingush town of Karabulak at 6:10 p.m. Moscow time Friday killing one person, a local police spokesman
* An Israeli student at a university in southwest Moscow was stabbed by an unknown assailant Thursday night, a police spokesman said
* Russia successfully put a Cosmos-series military satellite into orbit after a launch from a space center in Kazakhstan, Russia's space agency said
