Main News of May 11

A roundup of what has happened in the past 24 hours

WORLD

* The body of Boston Marathon bombing suspect Tamerlan Tsarnaev was buried earlier this week in a Muslim cemetery in a small town in Virginia known for its sprawling, popular amusement park, US media reported

* Russian art impresario Sergei Diaghilev, who founded the ground-breaking Ballets Russes in Paris in the early 20th century and gave then unknown artists their first break, including composer Igor Stravinsky, is being celebrated in Washington with a multimedia exhibition at the National Gallery of Art

* A woman slapped a sheriff’s deputy in the US state of California to quit smoking, US media reported

* The United States believes a military engagement in Syria may still be prevented, Secretary of State John Kerry said

* Guatemala’s former military leader Efrain Rios Montt, 86, has been found guilty of genocide and crimes against humanity by a court in the country, media reported

* At least 10 people were killed in a bomb attack on Saturday morning in Pakistan’s commercial capital Karachi as the country went to the polls in national and regional elections, the Pakistani newspaper Dawn reported

* An international conference between representatives of both sides in the Syrian conflict is unlikely to take place before the end of May as earlier stated, as there are still too many differences of opinion over the event’s format

* A Georgian lawmaker sought by Russia over his suspected role in an alleged plot to topple President Vladimir Putin has returned to Georgia from Lithuania

* At least 40 people have been killed and over 100 others injured in two blasts in the Turkish town of Reyhanli, near the border with Syria, Interior Minister Muammer Guler told NTV

* The Indian Navy has commissioned its first squadron of MiG-29K/KUB shipborne fighters, dubbed the "Black Panthers," a MiG spokesperson in India said

* At least 22 people were killed and nine others trapped in a gas blast in a coal mine in southwest China’s Sichuan province, Xinhua reported

* Expedition 35 crew members Chris Cassidy and Tom Marshburn have removed and replaced a pump on a cooling system of the International Space Station (ISS) that may be leaking ammonia, NASA said

* A total of 686 hopefuls have registered for Iran’s presidential election due on June 14, the country's Interior Minister Mustafa Mohammad-Najjar said

RUSSIA

* Russia’s Deputy Finance Minister Sergei Storchak said an announcement by a Cypriot minister that the reconstruction of the island nation’s 2.5 billion euro loan from Russia had been agreed was premature

* Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will visit Russia to discuss the supplying of Russian weapons to Syria, a high-ranking source in Jerusalem told RIA Novosti

* A man is suspected of making a false bomb threat call to police because he was afraid to miss a train bound to south Russia from Moscow, the Russian Interior Ministry reported

* Firefighters have extinguished 15 out of 25 forest fires in the Russian Far East over the past 24 hours, the regional forestry department reported

* The rearmament of Russia’s paratroopers should be completed in the next three to five years, Col. Gen. Vladimir Shamanov, commander of the Airborne Forces, told journalists

* Russian instigators said on Saturday they have opened a criminal case against a controversial anti-drug center that is accused of having illegally imprisoned a man, who was not a drug addict

SPORT

* Russian forward Ilya Kovalchuk has escaped further disciplinary action after his last-minute ejection for violent conduct in the 3-2 hockey world championships defeat to Finland on Friday, the Russian team spokesman told R-Sport

* The United States soared to the top of Group H at the hockey world championships on Saturday with a routine 4-2 win over France

* Maria Sharapova will face Serena Williams in the final of the Madrid Open after the Russian No. 1 trounced Ana Ivanovic 6-4, 6-3 in Saturday's semifinal

* Switzerland stayed unbeaten at the world hockey championships Saturday with a 4-1 win over Denmark that ensured the tournament sensation of a quarterfinal place

* Slovenia is struggling with a tight budget and question marks over the readiness of its venues for September's European basketball championships, officials said