Main news of June 17

WORLD

* The United Nations Security Council recommended to the General Assembly to reelect Ban Ki-moon to a second term as Secretary General of the United Nations

* One police officer was killed and over 20 others wounded in the western Syrian city of Homs after unidentified armed assailants attacked them, Syrian state television reported

* German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Nicolas Sarkozy called for a new financial assistance program for Greece

* Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko said he is ready to close the country’s borders if the poor economic situation in the country descends into full-scale crisis

RUSSIA

* Russia and France signed on Friday a $1.7 billion (1.2 bln euro) contract on two French-built Mistral class amphibious assault ships for the Russian Navy

* Mikhail Khodorkovsky, the former boss of Yukos oil company convicted of embezzlement and tax fraud, was delivered to prison colony number seven near the town of Segezha in Russia’s northwestern Karelia region, a source in the penal system administration said

* Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has proposed expanding the borders of the Russian capital to create a new “metropolitan federal district”

BUSINESS

* Russian gas giant Gazprom has made the decision to sell 16.7 percent of Gazprombank, one of the top five banks in Russia, as soon as this year

* Russia will make it possible for investors and businessmen with businesses in Russia to get long-term visas, President Medvedev said

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