Main News of July 29

A roundup of what has happened in the past 24 hours

WORLD

* A Russia photojournalist and three activists from the radical feminist movement Femen have been freed by a Kiev court after being detained Saturday following an attempt to stage one of the group’s trademark topless protests, city police said.

* Moscow is calling on all responsible sides in Syria to put an end to the bloodshed unleashed by what it termed “international terrorists,” Russia’s Foreign Ministry said.

* Russia’s Foreign Ministry harshly criticized a recent convention of Nazi veterans in Estonia as a “blasphemous attempt to honor Hitler’s hangmen.”

* The defense team representing a Russian national who is facing extradition from Lithuania to the United States appealed a court’s decision.

 

RUSSIA

* Almost 15,000 foreign nationals have been denied entry to Russia for various reasons in the first half of this year, three times more than in the same period last year, the Federal Migration Service (FMS) said.

* Police have rounded up 300 people to be “checked for complicity in crimes and offenses,” at markets around Moscow after an officer’s skull was bashed in while he attempted to detain a suspected sex offender, the city’s police department said.

* Moscow police said  that they had detained a man accused of bashing in a policeman’s skull during a brawl, which triggered a crackdown on marketplaces around the city.

* A nationalist deputy from Russia’s State Duma put forward legislation entitling working women to two days holiday every month during the “critical days” when they are menstruating.

* A woman who teaches “State and Law” classes at a Russian university has been detained on suspicion of possessing heroin, the local anti-narcotics service said in a statement.

 

BUSINESS

* Russian state oil giant Rosneft reported an IFRS net profit of 137 billion rubles ($4 billion) in January-June 2013, up 18 percent from the same period last year, the company said, citing an increased volume of operations.

 

DEFENSE

* Contracts have been placed with industry for more than 85 percent of the state defense procurement plan so far this year, Russian President Vladimir Putin said.

* Delivery of some new ships to the Russian Navy due after 2015 under the current procurement program, could be delayed until 2025, President Vladimir Putin said.

* The Russian government has approved a defense collaboration agreement with Spain, according to a document posted on the government’s website.

* The first of six Russian submarines, dubbed by the US Navy as “black holes in the ocean” because they are nearly undetectable when submerged, will be delivered to Vietnam in November, the shipbuilder said.

 

SPORTS

* Lithuanian Ruta Meilutyte, aged 16, broke the world record in the women’s 100-meter breaststroke at the world aquatics championships in Barcelona.

* Russian Premier League leading scorer Artem Dzyuba has been called to Russia's preliminary football squad for next month's World Cup qualifier against Northern Ireland.

* European law enforcement agency Europol announced it will conduct an investigation into alleged football match fixing by Russian organized crime.

* Russia’s weightlifting federation handed down two-year bans to four athletes, the Russian Anti-Doping Agency said in a statement.