WORLD
*An attack targeting Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh on Friday killed at least three bodyguards and wounded several senior officials, Yemen’s state news agency Saba reported
*Syrian security forces killed almost 70 people during the new protests in the city of Hama, Al Arabiya quoted Syrian opposition members as saying
*Government troops shot dead at least two unarmed civilians in the city of Ankahal as President Bashar Assad’s regime continued its violent crackdown on pro-democracy protests, the Al Arbiya TV channel said
*Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh received light wounds during an armed attack by opposition tribesmen on the presidential palace, Al-Arabiya television channel reported
*More than 1,600 Thais gathered in four cities in an attempt to break the Guinness World Records’ largest ever simultaneous massage, Thai’s daily The Nation reported
*Syria remains completely offline since Friday morning, the country’s state telephone and internet service said
*Serbian General Ratko Mladic refused to enter a plea at the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) on charges including genocide and crimes against humanity
*Russia has suspended imports of potatoes from Egypt on health and sanitation grounds, the country’s food safety authority said
*Czech Republic would like to join the NATO European missile shield project, but no practical schemes have been discussed so far
RUSSIA
*A defendant in court during the Stalin-era Great Purge was 20 times more likely to be found not guilty than an accused facing a judge in today’s Russia, Gazeta.ru reported
*Russian President Dmitry Medvedev ordered Defense Minister Anatoly Serdyukov to launch an investigation into two explosions at military arms depots and warned that dismissals may be necessary
*A Just Russia party leader Sergei Mironov, the former Federal Council speaker, called Friday on President Dmitry Medvedev to again give Russians the option to vote “Against All” in elections
*Russia will not poison its own people by lifting the ban it imposed on vegetable imports from the European Union, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said, in response to protests by the EU against the move
*Russia’s Federal Drug Control Service head Viktor Ivanov criticized a recent call for legalizing some illicit drugs as “a propaganda campaign promoting the use of narcotics.”
*The number of people injured in explosions and a fire at an artillery arsenal in Russia’s Volga region Republic of Udmurtia has climbed to 57 with 25 hospitalized, the Emergency Situations Ministry said
BUSINESS
*Several dozen international investors with money to spend in emerging markets gathered in London for a rare opportunity to meet the management of Russia’s top companies face-to-face
*Platon Lebedev, former executive officer of Group Menatep, and Mikhail Khodorkovsky’s business partner, said before his arrest he had never heard of former Yukos executive Antonio Valdes-Garcia, accused of stealing oil from Khodorkovsky’s firm and laundering the proceeds