WORLD
* The Fatah and Hamas movements reached an agreement on the candidacy of the reconciliation government’s prime minister, Egyptian Al Ahram daily reported
* Georgia sent a note expressing readiness for dialog to Russia on Tuesday via mediator Switzerland, in accordance with the recommendation of the International Court of Justice in The Hague, a Foreign Ministry spokesman said
* South Korean Yonhap news agency reported North Korean leader Kim Jong-il would pay a visit to Russia and meet with President Dmitry Medvedev in Russia’s Far East city of Vladivostok but Russia’s foreign minister denied knowledge of such a meeting
* France’s Christine Lagarde was named the first woman head of the International Monetary Fund (IMF)
RUSSIA
* President Dmitry Medvedev met with the newly elected leader of the Right Cause party, Mikhail Prokhorov. He described the businessman-turned-politician’s ideas as “revolutionary,” but promised to consider them carefully
* St. Petersburg Governor Valentina Matviyenko agreed to stand for the post of speaker of Russia’s upper house of parliament
* The Federal Anti-Monopoly Service ordered domestic oil companies to cut fuel prices in the wake of the decision by the International Energy Agency to release oil stocks to bring global oil prices down, the watchdog’s head Igor Artemyev said
* Russia’s Maria Sharapova defeated Slovakia’s Dominika Cibulkova 6-1, 6-1 to advance to the Wimbledon semifinals
* Russia resumed tests of its troubled Bulava submarine-launched ballistic missile, a Defense Ministry spokesman said
* Russia lifted a ban on vegetable imports from the Netherlands and Belgium imposed earlier this month by the Russian government, the head of the food safety watchdog Rosselkhoznadzor said
BUSINESS
* Russian fertilizer holding company PhosAgro set the price guidance for its stock flotation in an initial public offering in London at $13-16.50 per Global Depository Receipt (GDR) or $390-495 per share, the company said
* The Russian government plans to sell about seven percent of the country’s largest hydroelectric power operator RusHydro during the year, Deputy Prime Minister Igor Sechin said