* A draft resolution on Kosovo sponsored by the EU and U.S. is unacceptable to Moscow, a deputy Russian representative to the UN said
* Georgia's Foreign Ministry forwarded a protest letter to Moscow over an alleged violation of Georgian airspace by Russian military planes, but Russian Air Force commanders dismissed the allegations as untrue
* The U.S. House of Representatives passed a bill that will provide funding for American troops in Iraq and Afghanistan in two stages
* The U.S. administration considers American propaganda abroad a crucial element of national security and requested $1.523 billion in funding for the purpose for 2008, the secretary of state said in a report
* The Polish premier signed a regulation Thursday night to open talks with the U.S. over the planned deployment of part of its missile shield in the country, the foreign minister told parliament
* The European Commission said it had received a letter from the Russian agriculture minister reiterating Moscow's refusal to lift its ban on meat imports from Poland a week before a Russia-EU summit
* An informal energy meeting of developing countries in Krakow agreed to extend the existing Odessa-Brody pipeline to Polish terminals and refining centers and create a corridor to bring Central Asian energy to Europe bypassing Russia
* The European Parliament defended Estonia in a diplomatic spat with Russia over a World War II monument and urged Moscow to respect democratic values ahead of a Russia-EU summit next week
* Democratic forces in Serbia reached an agreement on forming a new Cabinet, following weeks of fruitless coalition talks, a Belgrade-based news agency said
* The Republic of Montenegro became the 47th member of the Council of Europe, ahead of the 117th session of its ministerial committee
* North and South Korea signed a deal to pass test trains through the trans-Korean railroad May 17 for the first time in 56 years, South Korea's news agency Yonhap said
* Ukraine's parliament speaker called on the pro-government coalition to put on hold negotiations with President Yushchenko until he ends pressure on Constitutional Court judges, the parliament press service said
* Ukraine's pro-presidential opposition party will not seek a coalition with the now-ruling Party of Regions after early parliamentary elections, the leader of Our Ukraine's faction said
* Russia and North Korea will sign an agreement on the use of the temporary labor of one another's nationals, the Russian government said
* Nicolas Sarkozy will make his first foreign trip as France's new president to Germany, a spokesman for the German government's information department said
* Tony Blair, the outgoing British premier, has set off for a meeting with the French president and president elect Friday and is planning a series of other bilateral meetings in the coming days
* Ukrainian Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych has returned home from Spain, where he underwent knee surgery, the Ukrainian Cabinet said
* Russia's foreign trade in the first quarter 2007 grew about 18%, year-on-year, to $107.8 billion, the Federal Customs Service said
* Vneshtorgbank floated 22.5% of shares, raising its value to $35.5 billion, Russia's second- largest bank said
* Gazprom Neft and LUKoil are preparing an agreement to set up a joint venture, LUKoil's chief executive said
* Prana won an auction to buy office and research assets of bankrupt oil company Yukos with a bid of 100.091 billion rubles (over $3.8 billion), a RIA Novosti correspondent said
* The Russian VTB bank's GDR price rose 6.8% in an hour during preliminary trading in London, the stock exchange said on its Web site
* Eight people were injured in an explosion at a metal works in the Sverdlovsk Region in the Urals, a medical source said
