* Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Russia would follow the advice of the International Atomic Energy Agency on the Iranian nuclear issue when the governors of the UN's nuclear watchdog meet
* Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko asked his country's Constitutional Court to consider a parliamentary decision to dismiss the government January 10
* The Russian Energy Ministry said part of the country's strategic fuel reserves could be used to meet the growing demand for heat during the deep frost enveloping Moscow and its surrounding regions
* Russian power giant Unified Energy System (UES) may reduce electricity supplies to Finland due to increased power consumption domestically after a cold spell settled over Moscow and the surrounding regions
* Russia's state-controlled energy giant Gazprom said it provided 750 million cu m of natural gas in additional supplies to domestic consumers on January 16-18, as exceptionally cold weather hit the country
* The Federal Agency for Nuclear Power said restrictions on power production had been lifted from most Russian nuclear power plants due to growing power consumption during the cold spell that has hit most Russian regions
* Martin Bartenstein, the energy chairman of the EU Council of Ministers, said Europe should seek to diversify its energy supplies to limit its reliance on Russian gas, amid signs that Russia's struggle to meet domestic energy demand threatened to create shortages on European markets
* A deputy finance minister said Russia repaid $32 billion in foreign debt last year
* The Russian Interior Ministry said one of the main ideologists of radical Islam had been killed in a special operation in Chechnya
* Ben Gurion International Airport in Tel-Aviv was shut down for half an hour when an Israeli passenger plane did not respond to air traffic control. The plane was escorted to a safe landing by two fighter jets
