WORLD
* Washington supports Russia’s bid to join the World Trade Organization (WTO) and the current negotiations between Russia and Georgia in Geneva on the issue, U.S. Vice President Joseph Biden told Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili
* Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has arrived in Rome for a two-day working visit and has already met with Italian President Giorgio Napolitano
* Russia and the European Union have reached an agreement on long-term visas, for up to five years, a Foreign Ministry official said
* The presence of foreign troops in Bahrain is justified by existing “external threats” rather than by the need to suppress a wave of anti-government protests in the country, Bahraini Foreign Minister Sheikh Khaled bin Ahmed al Khalifa said
* The criminal cases of Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic and army chief Ratko Mladic may be united into one case, but such a decision is yet to be considered, the chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) said
* NATO will continue its military campaign in Libya until at least September, NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said
* Russia and NATO fighter aircraft will take part in the first ever joint exercise during the upcoming Vigilant Skies 2011 anti-terrorism drill to run between June 6-10, Russian National Antiterrorism Committee spokesman Nikolai Sintsov said
* The space shuttle Endeavour has landed at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, bringing its 25th and final spaceflight to a close
RUSSIA
* Criticism of the case against Mikhail Khodorkovsky as politically motivated will hopefully end now the European Court of Human Rights has rejected his lawyers’ claims, Russia’s justice minister said
* The situation for journalists improved in Russia in 2010 because no journalists were killed that year and prosecutors have since gained two high-profile convictions, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) said in a new report
* The average monthly salary of Moscow doctors will more than double to 80,000 rubles ($2,850) in five years, the head of the city’s health care department said in an interview with Russian daily Izvestia
BUSINESS
* Washington supports Russia’s bid to join the World Trade Organization (WTO) and the current negotiations between Russia and Georgia in Geneva on the issue, U.S. Vice President Joseph Biden told Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili
* The Russian government must take bolder steps towards fighting corruption and improving Russia’s image abroad if it wants to achieve its goal of establishing Moscow as an international financial center, analysts said
* The Russian government has signed four car assembly agreements with a total investment of over $5 billion, including $1.1 billion which Fiat plans to invest in the expansion of a local automobile factory and the creation of a factory to produce engines, an Economic Development Ministry official said
* Belarus is seeking up to $8 billion in loans from the International Monetary Fund to stabilize its finances,” Prime Minister Mikhail Myasnikovich said
* American car giant General Motors (GM) plans to almost double output at its Russian plant in St Petersburg to 98,000 vehicles next year, Romuald Rytwinski, General Motors Auto CEO, said
* The South Stream project, which Greece carries out jointly with Russia, remains a priority for the country, the Greek energy minister said
SPORTS
* Russian tennis star Maria Sharapova ensured her return to the French Open semis for the first time in three years by defeating Germany’s Andrea Petkovic 6-0, 6-3
* Convers Sports Initiatives (CSI) co-owned by London-based Russian businessmen Vladimir Antonov and Roman Dubov have bought Portsmouth Football Club from Sports Holdings Ltd., the club’s official website said