Main news of January 10

RUSSIA

* President Vladimir Putin signed a decree appointing Dmitry Rogozin, an outspoken nationalist ex-lawmaker, as Russia's permanent envoy to NATO, the Kremlin press service said

* Russia will fully equip a fifth strategic missile regiment with new silo-based intercontinental ballistic missiles in 2008, a spokesman for the Strategic Missile Forces (SMF) said

* Russia will block any resolution on Kosovo's status at the UN Security Council until both parties have found a mutually acceptable settlement, Alexander Botsan-Kharchenko, Russia's envoy to the troika, said

* Any solution for Kosovo's status will be directly used to settle territorial disputes in other regions, including on the post-Soviet area, a Russian deputy foreign minister said

* The first Proton-M launch of 2008, carrying an Express-AM33 satellite, is scheduled for January 28 at the Baikonur space center in Kazakhstan, a leading Russian space company said

* A new serial strategic Tu-160 Blackjack bomber has undergone a flight test at an aviation production association in Kazan on the Volga, a deputy director of the Tupolev aircraft maker said

* A Moscow court extended the custody of Sergei Storchak, the deputy finance minister charged with attempting to embezzle $43 million, until April 9

WORLD

U.S. President George W. Bush said:

* - he is confident the Israelis and Palestinians will sign a peace deal before he leaves office;

*  an Israeli-Palestinian peace deal would require "painful political concessions" from both sides

* Poland will continue consultations with Russia over U.S. plans to deploy missile defense elements in Europe, a senior Polish defense official said after a round of bilateral talks

* Iran showed a video apparently proving that its boats did not threaten U.S. warships in the Persian Gulf at the weekend, countering Washington's charges of "provocative and dangerous" actions

* Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas urged the hard-line Islamic group Hamas to end its control of the Gaza Strip as a precondition for Palestinian reconciliation

* The Czech government will submit to parliament in April a missile defense bill that includes the placement of a U.S. radar on the country's territory, Czech Prime Minister Mirek Topolanek said

* At least 20 people were killed and around 50 wounded in a suicide bombing in the center of Lahore in Pakistan, police said

* Christopher Hill, the U.S. envoy to the six-nation talks on North Korea's nuclear program, set off for Beijing for a two-day visit, the Chinese Foreign Ministry said

* The deadly H5N1 bird flu strain has killed three mute swans in Dorset, southern England, agriculture officials said

* Georgia's top prosecutors announced that they had charged Badri Patarkatsishvili, a billionaire businessman and a leading opposition figure, with plotting a coup in the tiny ex-Soviet republic

BUSINESS

* The Russian government decided to completely ban tobacco advertizing, by signing up to a World Health Organization anti-smoking convention

* A new Russian law which could force thousands of Russian and foreign companies to change their names entered into force on January 1, 2008, the Russian business daily Vedomosti reported

* Russia, Greece and Bulgaria initialed an agreement on establishing an international project company to build the Burgas-Alexandroupolis oil pipeline across the Balkans

* Kamaz, one of Russia's largest truck makers, plans to sign an agreement on a joint venture with India's Tatra Vectra in February, which could make it the largest Kamaz plant outside of the country