President Barack Obama (R), his daughters Malia (2R), and Sasha and his wife Michelle Obama are seen on their arrival at Moscow's Vnukovo airport, Russia, 06 July 2009

US-RUSSIA: U.S. President Barack Obama says he expects "extraordinary progress" on a range of issues at his summit in Moscow with Russian President Dmitri Medvedev. Mr. Obama spoke Monday at the start of two days of talks with Mr. Medvedev and other Russian leaders. He said the United States and Russia have more in common than they have differences, and predicted the summit will benefit the people of both countries. The two presidents are discussing a new agreement to replace the 1991 Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty, which expires in December. Mr. Obama told Russian television his goal is to cut nuclear weapon stockpiles in a way that does not leave the United States or Russia with an advantage over the other.
 CHINA-UNREST: 

Chinese paramilitary police close off the roads to a hospital where the injured are kept after riots in Urumqi, western China's Xinjiang province, 06 July 2009

Chinese officials say 140 people have died in rioting in western China's Xinjiang region. State-run Xinhua news agency says Sunday's fighting left more than 800 injured in the provincial capital Urumqi. Reports say several hundred people have been arrested. Witnesses say 1,000 members of the Uighur (WE'-ger) ethnic group demonstrated against what they say is unfair treatment by the Han, who make up the vast majority of China's population. The Uighurs are largely Muslim. Xinhua quotes officials in Xinjiang as blaming Sunday's violence on Uighur exiles and what they call "foreign instigators".

Ousted Honduran Pres. Manuel Zelaya speaks at an Organization of American States meeting in Washington 01 Jul 2009

Honduras: Ousted Honduran President Manuel Zelaya has arrived in El Salvador to meet with other Latin American leaders, after a failed attempt to return to his own country late Sunday. The presidents of Argentina, Ecuador, and Paraguay will meet with Mr. Zelaya, as well as the secretary general of the Organization of American States.
President Zelaya told Telesur television late Sunday that his plane was turning away from the Tegucigalpa airport because soldiers were blocking the runway. The ousted president says he will try again to return to Honduras as soon as possible. Meanwhile the interim Honduran government has imposed a curfew until dawn, after a protester was killed at the airport.  

MEXICO ELECTIONS: The party that ruled Mexico

Mexican President Felipe Calderon (file photo)

for seven decades has made a historic comeback in Sunday's elections, scoring big with voters for the first time since it lost the presidency in 2000. President Felipe Calderon's National Action Party, or PAN, has conceded defeat in the mid-term elections to the Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI. PAN leader German Martinez admitted that PRI would be the top force in the lower house of Congress following Sunday's election.  Some 77 million Mexicans were eligible to vote in the elections to choose who will hold 500 seats in the lower house of Congress, six governorships, and more than 560 mayors.

An Afghan soldier stands in front of a truck which was damaged when a suicide car bomber struck outside the main NATO base at the airport in Kandahar, in southern Afghanistan, Monday 6 July 2009

AFGHANISTAN: Afghan officials say a suicide bomber has detonated a car bomb near the main gate of the NATO military base in southern Afghanistan killing at least two civilians and wounding 14 others. Military and police officials say the attacker blew himself up near the entrance of the Kandahar Air Field early Monday. Officials say at least 12 civilians and two Afghan soldiers were among the wounded. The airfield is one of the largest bases for international troops in Afghanistan. Monday's attack came days after thousands of U.S. Marines began a major offensive against the Taliban in neighboring Helmand province.