Main news of January 12

RUSSIA

* Alexei Miller, Gazprom's CEO, said the Russian energy giant will launch a test gas delivery to Europe at 10:00 a.m. Moscow time [7:00 GMT] on Tuesday 

* Four people were injured in a Mi-2 helicopter crash in the Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Area in West Siberia, local emergencies services said

* A court in St. Petersburg sentenced a man to 15 years in a high-security prison after finding him guilty of two explosions in the city in 2007

WORLD

* The European Commission signed a new version of an agreement on monitoring the flow of Russian gas to Europe via Ukraine, Russia's envoy to the EU said

* Israel's prime minister rejected appeals by his defense and foreign ministers for an immediate halt to the country's military operations in the Gaza Strip, an Israeli newspaper reported

* Iran is willing to cooperate with the new U.S. administration if it shows an "appropriate" approach toward Tehran, a foreign minister spokesman told reporters

* Twenty-three people are now known to have survived after a ferry sank off east Indonesia on Sunday morning, while another 244 people are still missing, the Jakarta Post newspaper said