Main news of December 5

A roundup of what has happened in the past 24 hours

RUSSIA

* Five people have been arrested in connection with the nightclub fire in Perm on Saturday that killed 107 people, with a sixth suspect in hospital following the tragedy.

* Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has accused the management of a nightclub in the Urals hit be a deadly fire of gross negligence, and called for harsh punishments.

* Russia's regional prosecutors have been told to organize urgent nationwide inspections of public gathering venues, to avoid a repeat of Saturday's nightclub fire.

* The victims of the fire in a Perm nightclub that killed more than 100 people will be able to undergo plastic surgery for free, the Russian Health Ministry said.

* Dozens of people are being kept alive with medical ventilators after a horrific fire in a Perm nightclub, the health minister said.

* The carriages on the Nevsky Express between Moscow and St. Petersburg, hit last week by a terrorist attack that killed 26 people, are being changed for safer versions, Russian Railways announced.

* The test launch of Russia's new Angara carrier rocket, which had been scheduled for 2011, have been put back by one year due to lack of financing, space agency Roscosmos said.

* A service was held in Moscow's Epiphany Cathedral at Elokhovo to mark the first anniversary of the death of former Russian Orthodox Church Patriarch Alexy II.

WORLD

* The final stage of construction of Iran's Bushehr nuclear power plant is moving forward at a good pace, Russian Energy Minister Sergei Shmatko said.

* The governor of the Phillipines' Maguindanao province, where over 60 people were killed in last week's election-related massacre, has surrendered to police.

BUSINESS

* Azerbaijan's state-owned oil company GNKAR said on Saturday its crude exports via the Baku-Novorossiisk pipeline were up 110% in November, year-on-year.