Main news of June 29

(WORLD, RUSSIA, MINISTRY, SPOKESMAN, MONDAY, RUSSIAN)

WORLD
* Russia condemns the coup d`etat in Honduras and calls for the restoration of law and order in the country, a Foreign Ministry spokesman said
* The European Commission said Monday that progress has been made on the issue of giving Ukraine an international loan to pay Russia for natural gas
* The World Health Organization (WHO) on Monday confirmed 70,893 officially registered A/H1N1 cases and 311 deaths in 116 countries and territories worldwide
* Honduran interim president Roberto Micheletti promised on Monday that presidential polls would go ahead as scheduled on November 29, a Venezuelan paper said
* A lawyer for Michael Jackson`s personal doctor denied claims on Monday that the cardiologist had injected the pop legend with a powerful painkiller prior to his death
* Iranian authorities have begun a partial recount of the fiercely disputed June 12 presidential vote, national media said
* Scientific tests conducted on what are believed to be the remains of Apostle Paul "seem to confirm" that they belong to the saint, Pope Benedict XVI has said
RUSSIA
* With a looming July 1 deadline to shut their doors and take down all signs, many Moscow casinos have opted to close early rather than gamble on working right down to the wire
* Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin told state-run banks on Monday to use new government funding to increase lending by at least 150 billion rubles ($4.8 billion) in July
* Russia`s Air Force has resumed Su-24 Fencer attack aircraft flights after a 10-day suspension following two crashes in mid-June, a Defense Ministry official said
* Pilot error has been identified as the cause of a crash involving a Su-24 Fencer tactical bomber in mid-June, a flight service official said
* Large-scale military drills start on Monday in 10 southern subjects of the Russian Federation, a spokesman for the North Caucasus military district said
* A Russian-Argentine agreement scrapping bilateral visa requirements entered into force
SPORT
* World No. 1 Dinara Safina and fellow Russian Yelena Dementieva won on Monday to secure places in the Wimbledon quarterfinals, while two compatriots were knocked out
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Moscow condemns Honduran coup, calls for restoration of law

EU says making progress on gas loan to Ukraine

(EUROPE, RUSSIAN, RUSSIA, UKRAINE, SUPPLIES, EUROPEAN)

Delivering gas to Europe
A map of Russian gas suppliers to Europe via Ukraine
Russia resumes gas supplies to Ukraine
Russia Ukraine sign gas deal
BRUSSELS, June 29 (RIA Novosti) - The European Commission said Monday that progress has been made on the issue of giving Ukraine an international loan to pay Russia for natural gas.
The statement was issued after high-level talks involving representatives of gas companies Gazprom and Naftogaz, the World Bank, the IMF, the EBRD and the EU.
"The participants made good progress in identifying the key issues of concern and elements for possible solutions including possible financing arrangements," the representatives said in a joint statement.
The ex-Soviet state is seeking a syndicated loan of over $4 billion from European banks to pay it debts to Russian energy giant Gazprom until November 2009.
European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso said in early June it would be difficult for the EU to help Ukraine keep up with its payments.
Russia, which supplies around one fifth of Europe`s gas, briefly shut down supplies via Ukraine`s pipeline system at the start of the year during a dispute with Kiev over unpaid debt.
The conflict was resolved in January, when Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin and his Ukrainian counterpart, Yulia Tymoshenko, agreed deals on deliveries to and gas transit through Ukraine for 2009.
Ukraine transits around 80% of Russia`s Europe-bound gas.
 
Original article

UN mission to withdraw from Abkhazia by July 15

(MISSION, GEORGIA, ABKHAZIA, UNITED, STATES, BRITAIN)

UN mission withdraws from Georgia and Abkhazia
Post-war life in Abkhazia
SUKHUM, June 29 (RIA Novosti) - United Nations military observers will leave Abkhazia by July 15, 2009, a spokesman for the UN mission said on Monday.
The work of the mission, officially known as the United Nations Observer Mission in Georgia (UNOMIG), was formally stopped on June 16 when its mandate expired with the UN Security Council unable to agree an extension.
Ten countries, including the United States, Britain and France, voted for the draft resolution to extend the mission, four countries - China, Vietnam, Libya and Uganda - abstained, and veto-wielding Russia voted against.
The draft, co-authored by Austria, Croatia, Germany, France, Turkey, Britain and the United States, would have extended the mission until June 30, 2009.
According to UN practice, the withdrawal of a mission takes up to two months.
Edmund Mulet, Assistant Secretary General for Peacekeeping Operations, is currently visiting Abkhazia to discuss the details of the withdrawal with local authorities.
He held a meeting at the republic`s Foreign Ministry and was received by Abkhaz Prime Minister Alexander Ankvab earlier on Monday.
The UN mission in the Georgian-Abkhaz conflict zone was deployed in 1993 to oversee a ceasefire following a post-Soviet conflict that resulted in Abkhazia gaining de facto independence.
Russia recognized Abkhazia and South Ossetia in August 2008 after its five-day war with Georgia over the latter, which was attacked by Tbilisi in an attempt to bring it back under central control. Most residents of both Abkhazia and South Ossetia have held Russian citizenship for several years.
 
Original article

Russia to raise oil export duty to $212.6 per ton from July 1

(EXPORT, CURRENT, GLOBAL, GOVERNMENT, PRODUCTS, PRICE)

MOSCOW, June 29 (RIA Novosti) - Russia will increase oil export duty from the current $152.8 to $212.6 per metric ton from July 1, following trends on global oil markets, the Russian government said on its website on Monday.
The decree was signed by Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin on June 26.
As of July 1, the duty on light petroleum products will rise to $155.5 from the current $115.2 per ton and for heavy petroleum products to $83.8 from the current $62.1 per ton.
Last year, the government abandoned its previously accepted bimonthly adjustments of export duties based on the price of the Urals blend on global oil markets, and from December 1 switched to setting duties for oil and oil products on a monthly basis to respond more swiftly to changes in world oil prices.
The global financial crisis has forced Russia, which receives a large part of its revenues from oil exports, to gradually devalue the ruble amid capital flight and a fall in global oil prices, which declined from their peak of $147 per barrel in July 2008 to around $40 per barrel in early 2009, before climbing back to about $70.
 
Original article

Obama: Violence affects U.S. hope for Iran dialogue

By David Alexander
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama, in some of his sharpest remarks to date, said on Friday hopes for U.S. dialogue with Iran were affected by what he called Tehran`s "outrageous" brutality following a disputed election.
"There is no doubt that any direct dialogue or diplomacy with Iran is going to be affected by the events of the last several weeks," Obama told a joint White House news conference with German Chancellor Angela Merkel.
"We don`t yet know how any potential dialogue will have been affected until we see what has happened inside of Iran," he said.
Obama`s remarks came as protests continued in Iran over the country`s June 12 presidential election, in which President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was declared the victor by a wide margin.
Ahmadinejad`s rivals, led former Prime Minister Mirhossein Mousavi, said the election was stolen and hundreds of thousands of people have protested in Tehran and elsewhere. Security forces responded with a violent crackdown and one hardline cleric on Friday called for leading "rioters" to be executed.
Some Republicans have criticized Obama for his cautious reaction to the crisis but his tone sharpened this week after some demonstrators were killed.
Merkel, whose country is one of Iran`s main trading partners for sophisticated engineering technology, was an early critic calling for Tehran to permit peaceful protests and to recount votes in the disputed election.
"The Iranian people need to be given the right to peaceful demonstrations, that the Iranian people have the right to have votes be counted and the election results substantiated," Merkel told the news conference.
CREDIBILITY PROBLEM
Iranian leaders have accused Obama and other foreign officials of meddling in their affairs and encouraging the opposition but State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley told reporters their problem was self-inflicted.
"It`s not a matter of something that was brought in from the outside. A significant segment of the Iranian population believes that their voices have not been heard and that the results that ... the government has announced do not reflect the will of the people," he said.
Still, Obama said he remained open to resuming nuclear talks between Tehran and major world powers. Washington asserts Iran`s nuclear program is designed to produce atomic weapons, but Iran says it is for energy.
"There are going to be discussions that continue on the international stage around Iran`s nuclear program," Obama said. "I think the direct dialogue between the United States and Iran and how that proceeds, I think we`re going to have to see how that plays itself out in the days and weeks ahead."
Crowley said the administration hoped Iran would accept an offer for talks with the United States and other major powers about its nuclear program.
"We seek engagement with Iran," he said. "But so far ... we haven`t seen a meaningful response from Iran materialize."  Continued...
Original article

U.S. pushes for Israeli-Palestinian discussions

By Jeffrey Heller
JERUSALEM (Reuters) - The United States said on Monday it would make a new push for Israeli-Palestinian talks and U.S. envoy George Mitchell, en route to the region, hoped to lay the groundwork.
"The president has told me to exert all efforts to create the circumstance when the parties can begin immediate discussions," Mitchell told reporters at a Palestinian donors' conference in Oslo, referring to renewed negotiations that President Barack Obama has pledged to pursue.
In the Gaza Strip, militants opposed to a dialogue tried to blast open Israel's border fence.
Israeli forces killed three Palestinian militants who had planned to breach the border fence with the Hamas-run territory by detonating explosives they had tied to five horses, a military spokesman said.
Middle East envoy Tony Blair said after the Oslo meeting Obama's push for a peace deal should be embraced by Arab states.
"For the Arab countries in particular we need their support... We need their support for the Palestinian Authority, their support for the peace process, their support in coming to a new ... understanding about how we can establish peace in the Middle East.
"President Obama needs something to come back to him, he's reaching out but he needs people to reach back and I think the next few months is all about seeing whether we can create the circumstances where that happens," he told Reuters.
POLICY SPEECH
Mitchell was to meet Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on Wednesday.
Netanyahu is at odds with Obama over the president's demand to halt Israeli settlement expansion in the occupied West Bank and has not endorsed the creation of a Palestinian state, a cornerstone of U.S. Middle East policy.
The Israeli leader is to make a major policy speech on Sunday in which a senior official said Netanyahu would "articulate his vision on how to move forward in the peace process with the Palestinians and with the larger Arab world."
Netanyahu has said he is ready to meet Abbas and begin talks on economic, security and political issues, which he has not specified.
Palestinians have rejected his proposed shift of focus away from territorial issues, whose complexity, Netanyahu has said, has frustrated U.S.-backed attempts to reach a final peace deal.
Abbas said renewed talks would be pointless unless Netanyahu first stopped settlement activity and endorsed Palestinian statehood as part of a 2003 peace "road map" that also calls on the Palestinian Authority to crack down on militants.
"If Israel rejects this and rejects the two-state solution, then, what shall we negotiate?" Abbas asked during a visit to a school in the West Bank city of Ramallah. Continued...
Source: Reuters

Netanyahu wants "maximum understanding" with U.S

By Jeffrey Heller
JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday he would strive for "maximum understanding" with Washington on peace issues but gave no sign he intends to bow to its demand to halt settlement expansion.
Under pressure from U.S. President Barack Obama over settlements in the occupied West Bank and Palestinian statehood, which Netanyahu has not endorsed, the Israeli leader said he would set out his policies in a major speech later this month.
"I want to make clear, it is our intention to achieve peace with the Palestinians and with the countries of the Arab world while attempting to reach maximum understanding with the United States and our friends in the world," Netanyahu said.
"I aspire to a stable peace based on the solid foundations of the security of the state of Israel and its citizens," he told his right-wing cabinet at its weekly meeting.
By mentioning security, Netanyahu again highlighted an issue he has called paramount to Israel's approach to peace with the Palestinians, whom he has said should have self-government but only limited powers of sovereignty.
In a speech on Thursday to Muslims in which he reaffirmed a U.S. commitment to the creation of a Palestinian state, Obama said Washington "does not accept the legitimacy of continued Israeli settlements."
Despite the rare rift with the United States, Israel's main ally, Israeli officials said Netanyahu has no intention of risking the collapse of his coalition by ceasing all settlement activity in the West Bank.
Nabil Abu Rdainah, a spokesman for Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, urged Netanyahu to announce his acceptance of a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, a settlement freeze and "a return to serious negotiations."
Half a million Jews live in settlement blocks built in the West Bank and Arab East Jerusalem, areas where, with the Gaza Strip, Palestinians want to establish a state.
U.S. ENVOY
Obama's Middle East envoy, George Mitchell, is to begin a visit to Israel and the West Bank on Monday. Western and Israeli officials said the White House was formulating a blueprint for a renewed peace process that could be presented early next month.
Without giving a date, Netanyahu said "Next week, I will make a major diplomatic speech in which I will present to the citizens of Israel our principles for achieving peace and security."
Israel Radio said he would deliver the address on June 14. A Netanyahu spokesman said he could not confirm the date.
Defense Minister Ehud Barak, head of the center-left Labour Party in Netanyahu's government, held out the possibility of a softening in Israel's position on Palestinian statehood in return for an easing of U.S. pressure over settlements.
Referring to a 2003, U.S.-endorsed peace plan, Barak told reporters the government should declare it is "committed to all previous agreements signed by previous governments, including the 'road map', whose goal is two states for two peoples." Continued...
Source: Reuters