Main News of May 12

A roundup of what has happened in the past 24 hours

WORLD

*The relatives of those killed when a Sukhoi Superjet plane crashed on a remote hilltop in Indonesia earlier this week gathered at a hospital in the capital Jakarta on Saturday to observe identification of the victims' bodies, the Jakarta Post newspaper reported.

*Russian President Vladimir Putin said he expects the situation in the Georgian breakaway province of South Ossetia to stabilize, and pledged more aid to the now self-proclaimed republic.

 

RUSSIA

*Election authorities in Omsk, Siberia’s second-biggest city, banned on Saturday the prime opposition candidate and affiliate of tycoon Mikhail Prokorov from the mayoral race on a technicality.

*Russia is testing Italy's Centauro wheeled tank and considering building it under license, a representative of the Oto-Melara company which makes the tank said.

*More than 60 percent of Russian smokers say they will not give up their bad habit when grim graphic images depicting the impact of smoking on human health begin appearing on cigarette packs in May 2013, the Superjob.ru research center reported.