Main News of May 30

A roundup of what has happened in the past 24 hours

WORLD

* The father of Ibragim Todashev, who was shot to death last week by US authorities while being questioned about the Boston Marathon bombing suspects, said that his son was killed with a point-blank shot to the head, raising even more questions about an already murky case

* The Syrian National Coalition welcomed the forthcoming international conference on Syria, proposed earlier by Russia and the United States, but reiterated that President Bashar Assad must resign before the opposition joins any peace talks, Al Jazeera reported

* The Syrian National Coalition is attempting to disrupt resolution of the Syrian crisis and is pushing for foreign military intervention in the country, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said

* A 24-year-old Lithuanian woman was found guilty of plotting a suicide bombing attack in Russia, but she walked free from court because she had already served her sentence while in pretrial detention

RUSSIA

* Russia has climbed six positions to 42nd place in the 2013 World Competitiveness Rankings published by the Institute of Management Development (IMD)

* Now that France allows same-sex couples to marry and adopt children, Moscow should impose a moratorium on adoptions by French citizens, Russia’s ombudsman for children’s rights, Pavel Astakhov, said

* Reports that Syria’s president had confirmed receiving a consignment of Russian-manufactured S-300 air defense systems emerged, but were quickly brought into question

* A group of leading Russian economists has called on the government to reconsider a controversial new law that obliges some NGOs to register as “foreign agents,” saying it threatens to destroy the cooperation between independent experts and the authorities

* A Libyan government representative has asked Russian authorities to resume frozen arms contracts, Russian Technologies (Rostech) CEO Sergei Chemezov said

* Russian General Staff chief Valery Gerasimov and his Serbian counterpart, Ljubisa Dikovic, discussed a renewed boost to bilateral collaboration on defense

* Illegal migration poses a security threat to Russia as a conduit for the infiltration of militants and foreign intelligence agents, Federal Security Service (FSB) deputy head Alexander Roshchupkin said

* Russia unveiled the Sochi 2014 Olympic medal set on Thursday, opting for a two-color design evoking the jagged Caucasus mountain range