RUSSIA

* Russia's Defense Ministry issued a stern warning to Georgia over its actions in South Ossetia and Abkhazia, and pledged to deploy more Russian peacekeepers in the area

* A new Tu-160 Blackjack strategic bomber officially entered service with Russia' Air Force during a ceremony at an aircraft manufacturing plant in Kazan on the Volga

* Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said:

- Russia will wait until the European Union is prepared to start talks on a new cooperation agreement

- Russia will reduce the risks from the proposed deployment of a U.S. missile shield in Central Europe

* Russia has developed a new concept for unified national defense against high-precision weapons, First Deputy Prime Minister Sergei Ivanov said

* Viktor Zubkov said he could head Gazprom's board of directors after he steps down as Russian prime minister next month

* Some of the Russian military aircraft due to take part in Moscow's Victory Day parade on May 9 have performed a practice flyover of the capital, an Air Force spokesman said

* Russian Prime Minister Viktor Zubkov and his Dutch counterpart, Jan Peter Balkenende, signed a program for bilateral cooperation in 2008-2010

* Russian opposition leader Garry Kasparov appealed against a court ruling that rejected his charges of slander against a Kremlin-backed youth group, an opposition coalition spokesman said

WORLD

* Lithuania blocked the start of EU-Russia talks on a new partnership and cooperation agreement, Luxembourg's Foreign Minister Jean Asselborn said

* A Chinese court has sentenced 17 people, accused of taking part in March riots in Tibet's capital Lhasa, to prison terms of three years to life, the Xinhua news agency said

* Police in Austria said DNA evidence backed up a 73-year-old Austrian electrical engineer's confession that he fathered six children with his daughter while keeping her locked up in a basement for 24 years

* The European Union and Serbia signed a Stabilization and Association Agreement, the first step for the Balkan country to EU membership

* Serbia will hand over an official request to join the European Union by the end of this year, the country's president Boris Tadic said

* Chinese officials are ready to meet "in the coming days" with representatives of Tibet's exiled spiritual leader Dalai Lama who they blame for last month's riots in the Tibetan capital, the Xinhua news agency said

* Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko said his country remains Russia's most reliable partner in the West, including in the military sphere

* Britain will send 600 troops in late May to meet NATO's request to beef up the international peacekeeping force in Kosovo, the defense secretary said

* Saeed Jalili, the secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council, hailed the results of talks with a Russian government official as positive and constructive

* A suicide bomber blew himself up in eastern Afghanistan, killing at least 16 people and injuring over 40, the local Tolo TV channel said

* The United States is a key player in the Middle East peace process, while Russia lacks clout, Syria's President Bashar al-Assad said

* Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko accused the country's opposition movement of receiving financial support from abroad

* Georgia will not continue talks on Russia's WTO bid until Moscow revokes its decision to support Georgia's breakaway republics of Abkhazia and South Ossetia, a deputy economics minister said

* The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) has ruled Russia should pay 72,000 euros ($112,000) in compensation to a resident of Chechnya, whose two relatives went missing in May 2001

* A U.S couple who prayed instead of seeking medical help as their 11-year-old daughter slowly died from complications of diabetes have been charged with second degree reckless homicide, national media said

BUSINESS

* Russia and Greece signed an intergovernmental agreement on cooperation in the construction and operation of the Greek section of the South Stream gas pipeline, the Kremlin press service said

* The second leg of an oil pipeline being built from East Siberia to the Pacific is to be rerouted north of Khabarovsk bypassing the city's water protection area, a local government spokesman said

* Russia will increase natural gas exports to Pacific Rim countries from the current 3% to 30% of its total exports by 2020, a Russian envoy to the United Nations said

* Polyus Gold [RTS: PLZL], Russia's top gold producer, said its net losses calculated to Russian Accounting Standards reached 610.7 million rubles ($25.9 million) in the first quarter of 2008