Main news of May 1

RUSSIA

* Russian President Vladimir Putin has been included in Time Magazine's annual list of the world's one hundred most influential people

* Police in Moscow have arrested some 35 people over an unsanctioned protest rally in the center of the city, a police spokesman said

* A young boy was hospitalized after a hit-and-run incident in the south of Moscow on Thursday, a traffic police source said

* Bags containing a total of over $55,000 have been stolen from the cars of two businessmen in Moscow in separate incidents, police said

* Members of a Russian doomsday sect who have been holed up in an underground shelter in central Russia since last November are safe after an earlier reported cave-in, a police source said

* A model train ride overturned in Moscow City Zoo on Thursday, injuring six children, a police source said

* Around 30,000 people were taking part in May Day rallies in downtown Moscow, the chief spokesman for the Moscow police said

* Russian champions Zenit St. Petersburg face the German side Bayern Munich at home on Thursday evening in the second leg of a UEFA Cup semi final that could see them reach the final of a major European competition for the first time in their history

* English soccer's top two sides, Manchester United and Chelsea, are to meet in the Champions League final in Moscow on May 21 after Chelsea knocked Liverpool out of the tournament in an emotionally charged semi-final on Wednesday evening

WORLD

* Azerbaijan has allowed the Russian equipment for the Bushehr nuclear power plant, held up for over a month on the Azerbaijan-Iran border, into Iran, the Foreign Ministry said

* At least nine people died and some 28 were injured after a bus carrying tourists from Russia, Ukraine, Italy and Canada overturned and burst into flames in Egypt's Sinai peninsula

* The Georgian Foreign Ministry has handed a protest note to the Russian ambassador over an increase in the number of Russian peacekeepers in the Georgian breakaway republic of Abkhazia

* Iran has sent a letter of complaint to the UN over comments made last week by Democratic presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton that the U.S. would be able to 'totally obliterate" the Islamic Republic if it were to ever launch a nuclear strike on Israel