Main news of February 5

A roundup of what has happened in the past 24 hours.

WORLD

*The European Union may introduce a new package of sanctions against Syria, La Libre Belgique daily quoted on Sunday Belgium Foreign Minister, Didier Reynders as saying

*Several dozens of Syrian protesters stormed the Russian embassy in Libyan capital of Tripoli on Sunday, a day after Russia and China had blocked the UN resolution on Syrian crisis, RIA Novosti reported

*Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and Foreign Intelligence Service Chief Mikhail Fradkov intend to persuade Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to launch democratic reforms to stabilize the situation in the riot-hit Middle East country, Russia’s Foreign Ministry said

*A magnitude 5.0 earthquake struck near the Bushehr nuclear power plant in south Iran, the U.S. Geological Survey said on its website

*Over 6,000 individuals have applied for joining NASA’s astronaut corps, which is twice as many as the U.S. space agency typically receives, NASA said in a statement

RUSSIA

*A wave of opposition rallies that spread across Russia will go down after the presidential elections on March 4, presidential chief of staff Sergei Ivanov said

*The crewmembers of the Maltese-flagged cargo ship on fire off Crimea in the Sea of Azov are Russian nationals, the Ukrainian Emergencies Ministry said

SPORT

*Russia completed a 3-2 victory over Spain in the Fed Cup on Sunday to set up a sixth-straight semifinal appearance

*Svetlana Kuznetsova beat Spain's Silvia Soler-Esponosa 6-2, 4-6, 6-3, on Sunday to hand Russia an unassailable 3-1 lead in their Fed Cup quarterfinal

*Carla Suarez Navarro hauled Spain back into contention in their Fed Cup quarterfinal in Moscow Sunday, beating a poor Nadia Petrova to reduce Russia’s lead to 2-1

*Russia's Fed Cup captain Shamil Tarpishchev opted to rest Maria Sharapova for the second day of their Fed Cup quarterfinal against Spain on Sunday, with Nadia Petrova taking the place of the Australian Open finalist