Main news of May 5

RUSSIA

* Outgoing Russian President Vladimir Putin held his last Cabinet meeting as head of state, as his eight-year rule entered its final week

* Russian President Vladimir Putin said an upcoming display of the country's military hardware in a Victory Day parade in Red Square on May 9 does not mean Moscow is threatening anyone

* Russia's Strategic Missile Forces (SMF) are planning to conduct nine test launches of ballistic missiles in 2008, the SMF commander said

* An appeal has been filed with a Moscow court against a jail sentence of more than three years handed down to American pastor Phillip Miles for illegally bringing ammunition into Russia, a defense attorney said

* The Russian government will allocate over 4.2 billion rubles ($177 million) to restore the Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts, president-elect Dmitry Medvedev said

* A villager from Russia's North Caucasus republic of Daghestan could be the world's oldest man, a source in the district administration said

* Five police officers were killed and two others injured after a bomb exploded next to a police checkpoint in Russia's North Caucasus republic of Chechnya

* A court in Russia's Far East ruled to confiscate four Japanese fishing vessels detained late last year for illegally fishing in Russia's waters

WORLD

* Georgia has formally notified Russia that it is withdrawing from a bilateral air defense cooperation treaty, a Georgian Foreign Ministry spokesman said

* Tbilisi has urged Russia to rethink its decision to strengthen ties with Georgia's unrecognized republics if it wants to join the World Trade Organization, a deputy Georgian foreign minister said

* The U.S. is to make an official proposal to modernize the Polish armed forces in exchange for the deployment of a missile-defense system in the country, Poland's Defense Ministry spokesman said

* Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert met in Jerusalem to discuss Jewish settlements and military roadblocks in the West Bank

* The UN relief agency for Palestinian refugees said it could continue its relief mission in the region after receiving a delivery of fuel, the agency spokesman said

* British soccer fans will not need a Russian visa to attend the Champions League final in Moscow, if they produce a valid passport, migration card and match ticket, the Russian Embassy in London said

* Statements made by the U.K. foreign secretary following Iran-Six talks in London on May 2 do not reflect the opinion of all the participants, Russia's Foreign Ministry said

* Serb President Boris Tadic has received a death threat that accuses him of "betraying the country," Belgrade's Blic newspaper said referring to sources in the president's administration

* A luxurious cruise liner, which ran aground in the Baltic Sea's Irben Strait on May 4, with 984 people on board is being evacuated, the press service of the Latvian coastguard said

* Serb hardliners in Kosovo announced they would take legal action against Serbia's pro-Western President Boris Tadic and two of his close allies in the Cabinet for alleged treason

* The Georgian Foreign Ministry sent a request to a UN official in Tbilisi to investigate claims by its breakaway republic of Abkhazia that two Georgian surveillance drones had been downed

* Air defense forces of Georgia's breakaway republic of Abkhazia detected another Georgian surveillance drone, but decided not to take any action, the Abkhaz defense minister said