Main news of August 5

RUSSIA

* Russians lined up in the rain in Moscow to pay their last respects to Alexander Solzhenitsyn, the writer whose books did much to reveal the truth about the Soviet system of labor camps

* Russian Air Force planes could take part in future joint operations with NATO, the force's commander said

* Russian Tu-160 Blackjack and Tu-95 Bear strategic bombers will join the Russian navy in a series of exercises in the Indian Ocean, the Air Force commander said

* Russia's military exports will exceed $8.5 billion in 2008, a senior government official said

* Prosecutors said the former mayor of the southern Russian city of Stavropol was to be charged with stealing some 19 million rubles ($810,000)

* An outbreak of the African swine fever virus in Russia's North Caucasus republic of North Ossetia has so far killed over 5,000 pigs, the regional emergency service said

* Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has instructed the Foreign Ministry to sign the international convention on the rights of disabled people, the Kremlin said

WORLD

* The EU's foreign policy chief Javier Solana received a letter from Tehran responding to proposals made by six world powers to try to resolve the dispute over Iran's nuclear program, Solana's press office official said

* Georgia said it was alarmed by reports that volunteers from Russia had started arriving in South Ossetia obviously in preparation for military action

* The breakaway republic of Abkhazia could assist South Ossetia, another Georgian rebel region, if a full-scale war with Georgia breaks out, a Russian daily said

* Georgia's state minister on reintegration will hold talks in the capital of the breakaway region of South Ossetia on Thursday to resolve the aggravated situation, he told journalists

* Georgia dismissed reports that Israel had halted military equipment sales to the Caucasus state over objections from Russia, which is locked in a feud with its ex-Soviet neighbor

* Data gathered by NASA's Phoenix lander on Mars have revealed the red planet's soil could contain a toxic substance that would make it less likely that life formed there

* Israel transferred 88 Fatah members who fled Gaza after clashes with militant group Hamas to the West Bank on Monday, the Israel army press office said

* The Large Hadron Collider (LHC), the world's largest and most powerful particle accelerator, will be officially unveiled on October 21, a Russian scientist said

* Kyrgyz police have seized a large stock of firearms and ammunition in a house being rented by U.S. nationals in Bishkek, the Interior Ministry press service said

* The Indian army has ordered an additional batch of BrahMos supersonic cruise missiles from the Russian-Indian BrahMos Aerospace joint venture, the company's CEO said

BUSINESS

* Belarus has paid in full its natural gas debt for the first half of 2008, Russian gas monopoly Gazprom said

* The state-owned Russian Technology corporation and the Italian-based multinational company Pirelli will invest $387 million in a project to build a tire plant in the Volga city of Togliatti, Pirelli said

* Russian billionaire Mikhail Prokhorov's investment vehicle Onexim will sell its 16.6% stake in metals giant Norilsk Nickel to Interros chief Vladimir Potanin for around $10 billion, Onexim said