Main news of January 11

RUSSIA

* Seven people including the Russian president's envoy to the State Duma, Alexander Kosopkin, died in a helicopter crash in Altai, south Siberia, an Emergency Situations Ministry spokesman said

* Implementation of an anti-crisis program in Russia is proceeding more slowly than planned, and work should be sped up, President Dmitry Medvedev said 

* Four suspected militants have been killed in a special police operation in the volatile southern Russian Republic of Ingushetia, a police spokesman said

WORLD

* Israel is close to achieving its aims in the Gaza Strip, but will continue its military operations until its southern regions are safe from rocket attacks, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said

* Israel may be close to the end of its military operation in Gaza due to UN pressure for an immediate ceasefire, an Israeli deputy defense minister said

* Just under half of the fatalities in Israel's ongoing attack on the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip are children, women or elderly people, a Palestinian health ministry official said

* Ukraine has signed a document on setting up an international gas transit monitoring commission, a key condition for the resumption of Russian gas supplies to Europe, the Unian news agency reported

* Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said a three-party deal to resume Russian natural gas supplies to the EU via Ukraine should not be fulfilled as Kiev had added new conditions to it

* President Dmitry Medvedev warned Ukraine that if international monitors find it tapping gas destined for European consumers, transit volumes would be cut by an equal amount or halted again

* Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said Europe should press Kiev, not Moscow, for the resumption of Russian natural gas supplies via Ukrainian territory

* Slovakia will restart a reactor at a Soviet-era nuclear power plant in the west of the country even if Russia resumes its natural gas supplies, Slovakia's economy minister said

* Moldova has started receiving gas from Ukraine's own reserves, Ukraine's UNIAN news agency quoted Moldovan authorities as saying

* Georgia has rejected Gazprom's offer of assistance in restoring gas supplies to Armenia, the Russian energy monopoly said  

BUSINESS

* Russia's government foreign debt stood at $32.5 billion as of October 1, down 13% against $37.4 billion on January 1, 2008, the Central Bank of Russia said

* Russia's Reserve Fund stood at 4.03 trillion rubles ($137.1 billion) and the National Wealth Fund at 2.6 trillion rubles ($87.97 billion) as of the end of 2008, the Finance Ministry said

* Consumer prices in Russia grew 13.3% in 2008 compared with 11.9% in 2007, the country's top statistics service said

* Russian railroad monopoly RZD and diamond miner Alrosa closed a deal to fully acquire the embattled KIT Finance group, the investment group said