News of the Day, 15:00 Moscow time

* North Korea has scaled down activity at its nuclear facilities after announcing plans for a new nuclear test, a source in the General Staff of Russia's Armed Forces said citing intelligence data

* A Russian diplomat gave a cautious reaction to the Israeli premier's speech conceding the possibility of a Palestinian state, saying the conditions he laid had out would not help resolve the conflict

* Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad postponed a trip to Russia for a regional summit, following post-election unrest in his home country, an official at Iran's embassy in Moscow said

* Russia views Belarus's linking of a trade dispute to cooperation within a regional security group as "irrational," but reaffirms its commitment to stronger bilateral cooperation, the Foreign Ministry said

* Russia will resume discussions with Belarus on restarting the country's dairy exports, which Moscow has banned over health concerns, Russia's chief sanitary official, Gennady Onishchenko, said

* Russia urges the United Nations Security Council to extend the UN monitoring mission on the border between Georgia and Abkhazia, which is set to expire on Monday evening, the Foreign Ministry said in a statement

* The global economic crisis has not been resolved, but it has prompted Russia to work harder to diversify its economy to avoid similar developments in the future, the Russian president said

* Russian President Dmitry Medvedev hosted a summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, before a meeting with the presidents of Brazil, India and China

* A meeting of BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India, China) leaders in Yekaterinburg should lay the groundwork for a new level of cooperation between the countries, Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said

* Pakistan wants to join the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, the country's president, Asif Ali Zardari, told a Russian business daily ahead of the group's summit in Russia's Urals

* Russia will raise its oil export duty from the current $152.8 to $212.6 per metric ton as of July 1, a senior Finance Ministry official, Alexander Sakovich, said

* Early parliamentary elections in Moldova could take place in late July, a member of the former Soviet republic's legislature said

* Two Russian mini-submarines descended into Siberia's Lake Baikal, the world's deepest lake, as part of an ongoing research expedition