Main news of May 31

A roundup of what has happened in the past 24 hours

WORLD

* Syrian President Bashar al-Assad issued a decree granting a general amnesty, state television said

* The South Pacific island nation of Vanuatu became the fifth country to recognize Abkhazia's independence

* Lithuanian Ambassador to Latvia Antanas Valionis resigned after commenting on Latvian President Valdis Zatlers' decision to propose parliament dissolution

* Serbian Justice Minister Snezana Malovic said former Bosnian Serb military chief Ratko Mladic is being flown to The Hague

* Georgian parliament banned Soviet symbols, former Soviet officials from high posts

* A Danish court issued a 12-year sentence to a Chechen over bombing

* Demonstrators again blocked the Bishkek-Osh road in Kyrgyzstan

RUSSIA

* Russia says Belgium contributed to Politkovskaya's suspected killer arrest

* Police detained several dozen opposition activists during unauthorized rallies in Moscow and St. Petersburg in support of freedom of assembly

* Russian Prosecutor General Yury Chaika decried the U.S. Senate's initiative to block Russian officials from entering the U.S. over lawyer Sergei Magnitsky's death

* The European Court said first Khodorkovsky case was not politically motivated

* Russian President Dmitry Medvedev ordered ministers to look into granting school leavers deferment from military service

* Former oil tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky appealed for parole