Main News of May 4

A roundup of what has happened in the past 24 hours

WORLD

* A total of 144 people were injured when helium-filled balloons exploded at a party rally in the Armenian capital Yerevan on Friday, the Armenian Emergencies Ministry reported

* Conservatives and Liberal Democrats making part of Britain’s ruling coalition lost hundreds of seats in local legislatures across the country, whereas the opposition considerably strengthened its positions, according to partial results of Thursday’s local elections

* The Ukrainian Prosecutor General’s Office has refused to initiate criminal proceedings on jailed former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko’s assault and battery claim but said she may appeal the decision in court

* Socialist Francois Hollande is leading in the latest French opinion polls, with 52.5-53.5 percent of voters saying they intend to vote for him

* South Korea started construction work on two nuclear reactors in what President Lee Myung-bak described as a "big milestone" in the country's atomic industry, Yonhap news agency reported

RUSSIA

* Internet activists from the hacking group Anonymous vowed to attack Russian government websites ahead of the May 7 inauguration of President-in-waiting Vladimir Putin

* The ruling United Russia party has nominated candidates for governor in five Russian regions

* The death toll in Thursday evening's twin blasts in Dagestan has hit 13 people, with about 100 injured, a source in the Republic of Dagestan's law enforcement services said

* An environmental activist who campaigns against controversial plans to build a motorway through a forest outside Moscow has been beaten in the Russian capital, she said

BUSINESS

* Russian stocks plunged in Friday trading, reaching their lowest levels since December 2011 as quotes for Brent oil futures sank to three-month lows

RELIGION

* Russians have more trust in the Russian Orthodox Church in general than in its head Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia, according to a survey conducted by the Kremlin-backed pollster Public Opinion Foundation (FOM)

CRIME

* Dagestan's Rapid Reaction Staff said it has established the identities of four men behind the May 3 twin blasts in Makhachkala

SPORTS

* Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has ordered the country’s Audit Chamber to review bank lending to construction projects for the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Audit Chamber head Sergei Stepashin said

SOCIETY

* The Russian government has approved a law that obligates couples who want to adopt a child to get special training beforehand, the official government newspaper Rossiiskaya Gazeta said