Main news of January 14

RUSSIA

* Unidentified gunmen have shot dead a member of parliament of Russia's North Caucasus Republic of Karachai-Circassia, a police source said

* The Russian Foreign Ministry expressed its concern over an escalation in the violence in the Gaza Strip where the death toll has climbed to over 1,000 Palestinians

* The Federal Arbitration Court of the Moscow District ruled illegal tax claims against German airline Lufthansa worth 230 million rubles ($7.4 million)

* The mayor of Moscow has suggested building a second metro system in the Russian capital, the Kommersant business daily said

* The Russian officials killed and injured in a helicopter crash last week in Altai, south Siberia, were hunting endangered animals, a Russian business daily said

* The former cellmate of Mikhail Khodorkovsky has filed a lawsuit for 500,000 rubles ($16,500) in damages against the ex-Yukos chief for alleged sexual harrasment, the businessman's defense website said in a press release

WORLD

* With EU countries left without Russian gas supplies for more than a week and no sign of an end to the deadlock between Kiev and Moscow, Europe questioned on Wednesday the credibility of Russia and Ukraine as reliable gas suppliers

* Greece may seek compensation from Russia over shortages in gas deliveries due to a conflict with Ukraine over Russian gas transits, the Greek development minister said

* President Viktor Yushchenko has insisted that Ukraine should pay $205 per 1,000 cubic meters for Russian gas and said the price for Slovakia should be no higher than $218

* The United States has no plans to deploy military bases in the former Soviet republic of Kazakhstan in Central Asia, a senior U.S. military official said

* Israel is provoking Islamic movements with its baseless, politically motivated military campaign in Gaza, the Palestinian ambassador to Russia said

* Israel bombed southern Gaza aiming to destroy tunnels to Egypt while its troops continued ground operations in the north of the enclave, Palestinian medics and fighters said

* Israel has blocked an Iranian ship carrying humanitarian aid to enter the territorial waters off the coast of Gaza, an Iranian Foreign Ministry official said during a televised interview

* Residents in the Gaza Strip should not count on economic normalization and the lifting of blockades as long as Hamas is in power, Israel's foreign minister told Russian news agencies

* The number of people rescued from a ferry that sank in eastern Indonesia on Sunday has risen to 41, the national news agency Antara said

* Over 30 people have been injured after clashes with riot police as anti-government protests in the Latvian capital turned violent, health officials said

BUSINESS

* VTB Bank, Russia's second largest in terms of assets, said its net profit under Russian Accounting Standards grew 44.4%, year-on-year, in 2008 to 26.31 billion rubles ($834 million)

* Russian natural gas exports grew 5.9% year-on-year in January-November 2008 to 160.8 billion cubic meters, the Federal Customs Service said

SPORTS

* Trucks from Russia's Team Kamaz are occupying the top two spots of the overall standings of the 2009 Dakar Rally in South America after 10 of 15 stages

* English Premier League side Everton have dropped plans to sign Zenit St. Petersburg and Russian international Pavel Pogrebnyak, the Sport Express paper said