Main News of May 16

WORLD

* The number of terrorist attacks in Syria has increased since UN observers arrived in the country, President Bashar al-Assad said in an interview with the Rossia 24 TV channel

* Jailed former Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko, may only be released after consideration of her appeal but not at “the command of the [executive] authorities”, Ukrainian Prime Minister Mykola Azarov said

* The Court of Appeals in Kiev upheld the conviction of jailed former Ukrainian Interior Minister Yuriy Lutsenko

RUSSIA

* Anti-Putin activists vowed to continue their round-the-clock street protests after police broke up a downtown Moscow Occupy-type camp in a dawn raid

* The Indonesian authorities have confirmed they have found the cockpit voice recorders of the crashed Russian Sukhoi Superjet 100 passenger jet at the bottom of a steep valley at Mount Salak, the ANTARA News agency said

BUSINESS

* The Russian parliament approved in the first reading a government sponsored bill penalizing officials for failure to place state defense contracts on time

* Russian businessman Alexander Lebedev, who owns the British Evening Standard and The Independent newspapers, is to sell two Russian radio stations to billionaire Mikhail Gutseriyev for $14 million, Kommersant business daily reported

* Russia is to put up for sale a batch of 18 Sukhoi Su-30 multirole fighter aircraft, rejected by India on concerns about their engines and returned to Russia in 2003, a defense official said

* The 27 millionth car came off the assembly line at the AvtoVAZ plant in Togliatti, the press service of Russia’s largest carmaker said