Main news of January 22

RUSSIA

* Moscow could take retaliatory measures after Latvia expelled a Russian diplomat on charges of espionage, the Russian Foreign Ministry's official spokesman, Mikhail Kamynin, said

* Moldovan President Vladimir Voronin met Russian President Vladimir Putin to discuss bilateral trade and a settlement to the Transdnestr issue 

* The Russian film "12" directed by Oscar-winning director Nikita Mikhalkov, was included in a five-film shortlist for the 'Best Foreign Film' in the Oscar awards

* Russia's Defense Ministry is planning to purchase at least 10-15 Mi-28N Night Hunter attack helicopters every year until 2015,  said Gen. Nikolai Makarov, chief of Armament for the Russian Armed Forces

* Dmitry Medvedev, publicly-backed by Russian President Vladimir Putin to succeed him, pledged to maintain current economic policies if elected president in polls set for March 2

*  Vladimir Kirillov, former first deputy governor of the Leningrad Region, was appointed head of the watchdog that oversees companies' compliance with environmental protection legislation, including in the crucial mineral resources sector, the government said

* Two people were killed and three injured in a car bomb blast and a militant attack in Nazran, a city in Russia's North Caucasus Republic of Ingushetia, a local police source said

* A fraud case was launched after prosecutors said that over 15,500 false signatures had been collected in support of ex-premier and presidential candidate Mikhail Kasyanov's election nomination

* The flagship of Russia's Black Sea Fleet effectively engaged a designated target with a supersonic cruise missile as part of a Navy exercise in the northern Atlantic, Capt. 1st Rank Igor Dygalo, an aide to the Navy commander, said 

* A Moscow court scheduled a plea hearing into the case against Russia's former nuclear energy minister, Yevgeny Adamov, for Thursday, his lawyer Timofei Gridnev said

* Preliminary results of genetic analysis carried out on the remains discovered in the Urals in July 2007 show they belong to the last Russian tsar's children, the region's chief forensic expert, Nikolai Nevolin, said

* The criminal case against a former Yukos executive, Vasily Aleksanyan, was submitted to court, but his defense claims they know nothing about it 

* The Reshetnev Research and Production Association of Applied Mechanics, Russia's major producer of Earth-orbiting satellites, said it intended to use microprocessors produced by the U.S.-based firm Aeroflex on its relay satellites 

WORLD

* The five permanent UN Security Council members and Germany coordinated the text of a new resolution on Iran's controversial nuclear program, Germany's foreign minister said

* Iran will continue uranium enrichment even if the UN Security Council adopts yet another resolution against the country, Gholam Hossein Elham, an Iranian government spokesman said

* Israel eased the blockade to the Gaza Strip allowing fuel and medicine to be bought into the Palestinian enclave, local media said

* The Gaza Strip's sole power generating plant has resumed operations after Israel eased its blockade of the enclave for a day to allow fuel in, a plant spokesman said

* The Russian Foreign Ministry said the country would have to take "appropriate measures" if Ukraine were to join NATO

* Russia delivered the fifth fuel shipment to the Bushehr nuclear power plant it is building in southern Iran, Iranian media said, citing Iranian nuclear officials 

* The joint construction of a stretch of a natural gas pipeline with Russia's Gazprom under the South Stream project will turn Serbia into a regional economic leader, Serbia's prime minister said

* The United Arab Emirates urged the Middle East quartet of mediators to help end the building of Jewish homes in Jerusalem and other occupied Palestinian territories, the WAM news agency said

* Georgia is ready for compromise with Russia, but not to the detriment of its national interests, the tiny ex-Soviet republic's acting foreign minister, Gela Bezhuashvili, said

* Ukrainian Defense Minister Yuriy Yekhanurov proposed concrete steps aimed at strengthening cooperation with NATO during a meeting with Jiri Sedivy, the 26-nation alliance's assistant secretary general

* Pakistan began the mass assembly of a JF-17 fighter at an aircraft-manufacturing plant in the northwest of the country, national television reported 

* A bird flu outbreak that hit India's eastern state of West Bengal in early January spread to the state's seventh district, Indian agriculture officials said

* Former Czech president Vaclav Havel, who was hospitalized on Saturday with heart arrhythmia and respiratory inflammation, is feeling considerably better, the ex-president's adviser, Jakub Hladic, said

* Iran could contribute natural gas to the planned Nabucco pipeline to pump Caspian gas to Europe via Turkey, bypassing Russia, the Islamic Republic's foreign minister said

BUSINESS

* A senior Russian Central Bank official said that the ongoing crisis on the world financial markets would have no major implications for Russian banks

* A U.S. businessman of Russian origin, Alexander Kogan, said he had repurchased Russia's debt to the Swiss trading firm Noga and resold it to Russia

* The Russian Trading System (RTS) index plunged 5.83% from Monday's close to below 1,900 points in morning trading amid a continued slump on the Russian equities market on negative data from world trading floors

* Russian energy giant Gazprom said its total gas production for 2007 declined 1.3% year on year to 548.5 billion cubic meters

* Deutsche Bank will lend 292.1 million euros ($422 million) to Russia's rail monopoly Russian Railways (RZD) to refinance the purchase of high-speed trains from Germany's Siemens, RZD said