WORLD
*The United States is set to expand sanctions against Belarus, U.S. President Barack Obama said in a statement
*Russia and the United States will soon agree on three-year multiple entry visas, U.S. Ambassador to Russia John Beyrle said
*The U.S. Army Forces Command and Russian state-controlled arms exporter Rosoboronexport have sealed a contract for the supply of 21 Mi-17V5 multipurpose helicopters to Afghanistan, a spokesman for the Russian Federal Service of Military-Technical Cooperation said
*Russian President Dmitry Medvedev expressed his dissatisfaction with how the negotiations with the United States on the missile defense shield are continuing, saying the sides are losing time
*Muammar Gaddafi's regime has lost its legitimacy and the Libyan leader must leave his post, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said after the G8 summit in Deauville
*French President Nicolas Sarkozy will pay a working visit to the Libyan opposition stronghold of Benghazi to hold talks with the country's insurgents
*The leaders of the Group of Eight countries praised the so-called Arab Spring and pledged to support democratic reforms in the region on the final day of the G8 summit in France's Deauville
*A Serbian court ruled on Friday that former Bosnian Serb army chief Ratko Mladic was fit to stand trial and can be extradited to the UN war crimes tribunal in The Hague, the BBC reported
RUSSIA
*Private Sergei Denyayev could hardly have imagined on Thursday morning that by the end of the week he would be facing two years in prison after making 116 homeless
*Russia's stance on internet development and intellectual property rights differs from that in the final joint declaration of the G8 leaders, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said
*Police have successfully released all six female hostages held in a penal colony located in the village of Seryodka in Russia's northwestern Pskov region on Friday, a local police source said
*Police in Moscow said they will enforce the city's ban on a protest by gay rights campaigners in the Russian capital
*A Kremlin official dismissed as unconstitutional a proposal to establish a committee to monitor journalists' compliance with "moral norms"
*Russia is experiencing an acute shortage of personnel to ensure the decommissioning and dismantling of nuclear facilities, state-run nuclear corporation Rosatom officials and experts warned
*Ten people died in a traffic accident in the Moscow Region early on Friday, the Emergencies Ministry reported
BUSINESS
*Russian-British joint venture TNK-BP has filed a non-binding application to buy the government's 51.19 percent stake in Poland's Lotos oil company, Kommersant business daily quoted a source close to the bidding process as saying
*Billionaire Vladimir Potanin has declined a $19.2 billion for a 30 percent stake in Russia's Norilsk Nickel metals producer from Viktor Vekselberg and Leonard Blavatnik, Vedomosti business daily quoted sources as saying
