* Businessman Andrei Lugovoi, Britain's chief suspect in the murder of ex-Russian security service officer Alexander Litvinenko, said he is ready to be tried in Russia
* Prime Minister Mikhail Fradkov signed a resolution to appoint as deputy economics minister Anna Popova, who until now headed the ministry's corporate management department, a deputy prime minister said
* President Vladimir Putin signed into law a bill to spend debt and back-tax payments to the budget by bankrupt oil company Yukos on 2007 social programs, the Kremlin said
* Russia's state debt fell 8.1% in the first six months of the year, from $52 billion to $47.8 billion, the Finance Ministry said
WORLD
* A draft resolution on Kosovo's future was withdrawn from UN Security Council debate over Russia's opposition to proposed independence for the Albanian-dominated Serbian province
* Russia welcomed a decision to remove a draft resolution on Kosovo's independence from UN Security Council debate, Russia's UN ambassador, Vitaly Churkin, said
* Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said:
- he believes the deterioration in Russian-British relations over the Litvinenko case is linked to Britain's new Cabinet, dismissing suggestions Russia is refusing to cooperate with the U.K.
- Russia is ready to improve relations with Britain, strained over the Litvinenko murder case, if mutual respect and common sense prevail on both sides
- Russia's opposition to Kosovo independence without the consent of Serbia is based on respect for international law, not on Moscow's own interests
* Wu Dawei, China's deputy foreign minister, said:
- North Korea reaffirmed its readiness to declare and shut down all nuclear facilities in line with the country's nuclear disarmament program
- the next round of six-party talks on North Korea's nuclear program will open in early September, followed by a ministerial meeting in Beijing
* Israel released over 250 Palestinian prisoners, in line with a previous commitment to support Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in his power struggle with radical Islamist group Hamas, local radio said
* Russian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Mikhail Kamynin said:
- Britain is to blame for Moscow's suspension of bilateral counterterrorism cooperation, as the U.K. first suspended ties with Russia's main antiterrorism agency
- Experts from the UN nuclear watchdog will install monitoring equipment at five North Korean nuclear facilities in the next few weeks as part of an international effort to fold Pyongyang's nuclear program
* Russia is ready to start talks on an amended Conventional Armed Forces in Europe (CFE) Treaty this autumn, and will continue to honor its provisions until the deadline set by a presidential decree, a Russian diplomat said
* Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said the country might carry out a military operation against Kurdish insurgents based in northern Iraq after parliamentary elections July 22
* Serbian Ambassador to Russia Stanimir Vukicevic said his country would revise its relations with countries that unilaterally acknowledge the independence of its Kosovo province
* The second U.S.-Iran ambassador meeting since the 1979 diplomatic crisis will be held in Baghdad and include Iraqi representatives, Iraq's foreign minister told pan-Arabic newspaper Asharq Al-Awsat
* According to polls carried out by CBS television, 63% of Americans believe Democrat Senator Hilary Clinton is "highly likely" to win in the next presidential elections in 2008
* Paul Craig Roberts, a former Reagan official, issued a public warning that the Bush administration is preparing to orchestrate a staged terrorist attack in the United States, transform the country into a dictatorship and launch a war against Iran within a year
* Ukraine's Health Ministry said 164 people, including 34 children, have been hospitalized since a toxic yellow phosphorus spill in the west of the country Monday, and more patients are expected
* The unconfirmed result of Thursday's presidential election in Nagorny Karabakh, a secessionist republic in Azerbaijan, gave a landslide victory to the region's former security chief, Bako Saakyan
