Main news of January 16

RUSSIA

* The British Council's office in St. Petersburg suspended work on Wednesday after Russian officials interviewed its staff and allegedly detained the head of the office

* Russia's election authorities stopped receiving candidates' applications for the March 2 presidential election

* The delivery of an Indian Navy diesel submarine which recently underwent a two-year refit at a Russian Barents Sea shipyard will be delayed by at least six months, a shipyard spokesman said

* A Russian court found four Japanese captains detained in the country's territorial waters in early December guilty of border violations, local prosecutors said

* The death toll in fires in Russia reached 15,924, including 597 children, in 2007, with 211,163 blazes reported, an emergencies ministry spokesman said

* Bird flu cases have been registered in ten countries worldwide so far this month, Russia's agricultural watchdog said

* Seventy-two militants including 11 leaders of armed groups were killed in special operations last year in Chechnya, the North Caucasus republic's interior minister said

WORLD

* Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said Fidel Castro is in good health and that he believes the ageing Cuban leader is ready to return to active political life in Cuba

* An explosion on a bus in central Sri Lanka killed at least 23 people and injured around 70 as a ceasefire between the government and Tamil Tiger insurgents formally came to an end

* North Korea blames Washington for delays in implementing agreements reached at an October 2007 round of six-nation denuclearization talks, the Chinese Xinhua news agency said

* The United States rendered military services worth a total of $72 billion to six Arab states in the Persian Gulf from 1981 to 2006, the Congressional Research Service (CRS) said

* The Pakistan People's Party has petitioned the United Nations to conduct a probe into the assassination of its former leader Benazir Bhutto, party representatives said

* Israeli forces killed a leading Palestinian insurgent in the northern West Bank, an Israeli army spokesman said

* The Russian Embassy in Tokyo dismissed a police report alleging that a Japanese official had leaked classified information to Russia, calling it an attempt to strain bilateral ties

* Belarus is looking to buy the advanced S-400 Triumf (SA-21 Growler) air defense system from Russia, the chairman of the Belarusian State Military-Industrial Committee said

* Six out of nine Russian players progressed to the third round of the 2008 Australian Open tennis championship

* Georgia's top prosecutors put businessman Badri Patarkatsishvili, accused of plotting a coup in November, on the country's wanted list, the Prosecutor General's office said

* The Russian air group, part of the United Nations Mission in Sudan, will carry out a regular rotation from January 28 until February 2, 2008, the Russian Air Force said

* Warsaw sees no need to hold three-way talks involving Russia on U.S. plans to deploy missile defense elements in Poland, the country's foreign minister said

* Negotiators of four states involved in talks on Kosovo's status will meet in Slovenia on Saturday to discuss a timeframe for a police mission for the province, Serbia's Beta news agency reported

* The German foreign minister has invited counterparts from the other five countries involved in talks on the Iranian nuclear problem to meet on January 22, Germany's Foreign Ministry said

* U.S. President George Bush left the Egyptian Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh for Washington on Wednesday, winding up his eight-day tour of the Middle East

BUSINESS

* Russia will raise oil export duties by $58.4 to $333.8 per metric ton from February 1, in line with global market trends, the government press service said

* Tatneft, Russia's sixth largest oil company, said on Wednesday its crude output had grown 1.3%, year-on-year, in 2007 to 25.7 million metric tons (188 million barrels)

* Russia's auto makers have competed their transition to the Euro 3 emission standard in vehicle production, the chief executive of the Association of Russian Auto Makers said

* Natural gas trader RosUkrEnergo, co-owned by Gazprom, said it would sell Russian gas to Ukraine in January-March to cover a shortfall in Central Asian supplies