- Russia and the United States will continue discussing the controversial Iranian nuclear program at the United Nations Security Council
- he offered to exchange information on missile launches with the U.S. and NATO and use a radar being built in southern Russia for early missile warnings
* The United Kingdom has tightened security measures following the discovery of two car bombs in central London that failed to detonate, and an unsuccessful terrorist attack at Glasgow Airport in Scotland late last week
* The Palestinian Islamic movement Hamas detained the leader of a radical Islamic group that has reportedly been holding BBC correspondent Alan Johnston hostage for nearly four months, local media said
* Israeli troops shot dead a field commander of a paramilitary group with close ties to the Palestinian Fatah party in the West Bank town of Jenin, local media said
* Joint Palestinian security forces will be sent to a refugee camp in northern Lebanon within the next 24 hours, a Lebanese newspaper said
* Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and his Venezuelan counterpart Hugo Chavez launched the construction of a petrochemical plant south of Tehran in a move to boost bilateral energy cooperation, an Iranian news agency said
* North Korea successfully launched advanced short-range missiles last week, South Korea's Yonhap news agency quoted the commander of U.S. Forces Korea as saying
* A senior Russian finance ministry official said export duty for oil would be raised by $23.3 from August 1 to reach about $223.9 per metric ton in view of the growing price of Urals blend
* Russian Railways (RZD) railroads monopoly said it had invested 200 million rubles ($8 million) in the construction of an oil terminal as part of the Siberian pipeline project being built to transport crude eastward
* Russia's state-controlled oil company Rosneft said it had acquired offices and other non-core Yukos assets from Prana, an ambiguous firm which bought the assets after winning the May 11 auction; the price of the deal has not been disclosed
* An Egyptian serving a 15-year sentence for spying for Israeli intelligence was found dead by prison officers in a jail near Cairo Monday morning, local media said
* An aide to Rakhat Aliyev, the former son-in-law of the Kazakh president, currently on bail in Vienna, was placed on the international wanted list, an Interior Ministry spokesman said
* Relief efforts are being hindered by a cyclone that caused torrential rains and strong winds in southern Pakistan, with about two million people currently affected, local media reported citing official reports
* Armenia must voluntarily cede Azerbaijani territory if it wants to avoid a new war over Nagorny Karabakh, Azerbaijani President Ilkham Aliyev said
* Drought-hit Ukraine introduced temporary grain export quotas, a spokesman for the country's Agriculture Ministry said
* Fugitive Russian oligarch Boris Berezovsky has been charged with plotting a coup in Russia, one of his lawyer in Moscow said
