News of the Day, 18:00 Moscow time

* Russian President Dmitry Medvedev welcomed the readiness of the new U.S. administration to take on board Moscow's objections to the deployment of a U.S. missile shield in Central Europe

* Russia's Navy has denied a report from the Georgian Interior Ministry saying that the Russian Black Sea Fleet has been put on high alert

* Russia will not terminate diplomatic relations with NATO following the expulsion of two employees at the Russian mission to NATO, Russia's ambassador to the military alliance, Dmitry Rogozin, said

* Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov will not attend the Russia-NATO Council session scheduled for May 18-19 in Brussels, the Russian envoy to NATO, Dmitry Rogozin, said

* Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili accused a "military group" of planning a coup and assured the nation in a televised address that the situation in the country was under control

* Russian border guards have tightened security on the border with Georgia following reports of an impending military coup in the south Caucasus country, the regional border control department said

* Armenia will not participate in NATO military exercises in Georgia due to start on Wednesday, the Aravot newspaper reported

* Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin ordered the country's sports minister to ready Russia's proposal for the right to host the 2018 World Cup

* Former police chief Denis Yevsyukov, who killed three and wounded six in a south Moscow supermarket in late April, has been charged with murder and faces life in prison, investigators said

* A St. Petersburg-based shipyard will start building the world's first offshore nuclear power plant on May 18, the city's governor, Valentina Matviyenko, said