Main news of January 16

RUSSIA

* Lawyers for energy giant Gazprom will complete filing a lawsuit on Friday with the Stockholm Arbitration Court in regard to its gas transit dispute with Ukraine, a Russian deputy prime minister said

* A spokesman for the Russian Navy denied on Friday media rumors about the possible establishment of Russian naval facilities in several countries in the Mediterranean

* Germany's E.ON and France's GDF Suez have agreed to enter a consortium for the provision of technical gas to Ukraine, a senior Gazprom official said

* Russia believes it is too early to name any countries where its Navy would like to deploy "basing points," the deputy chief of the General Staff of the Armed Forces said

* Russia is ready to hold a Middle East conference in Moscow, but its agenda needs to take into account the latest events in Gaza, the Russian president said

* A Moscow court has adjourned until February 25, a 500,000-ruble ($16,500) suit filed by the former cellmate over a homosexual claim against jailed Yukos founder Mikhail Khodorkovsky, a RIA Novosti correspondent reported

* Russia is concerned by the buildup of Georgian forces near the borders of the breakaway provinces of South Ossetia and Abkhazia, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said

* A salvage tug from Russia's Pacific Fleet is escorting a Danish ship that was earlier released by Somali pirates to Oman, a Pacific Fleet spokesman said

* Three people were killed and another five injured in an explosion that ripped through a plant in the Urals city of Nizhny Tagil on Friday, a local police source said

* A Bangladeshi national has been beaten in southern Moscow by unknown assailants, a local police source said

* Russia has sent two Black Sea Fleet vessels to take part in an anti-piracy operation in the Gulf of Aden, off northeast Africa, a Defense Ministry source said

* Russia's top Investigation Committee said on Friday pilot error may have been the cause of last night's collision between two Il-76 cargo planes that left four dead in Russia's North Caucasus

WORLD

* Palestinian militants on Friday have renewed firing rockets and mortars into the southern region of Israel, injuring five civilians, the Israeli army press services said

* Thirteen people were injured in the Lithuanian capital of Vilnius on Friday during a protest against the government's anti-financial crisis policies, national media said

* Syrian-based Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal rejected on Friday Israel's conditions for a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip at the opening of a summit for Arab and Muslim nations in Qatar's capital, Doha

* The European Commission said on Friday that the EU could review ties with Russia and Ukraine if they failed to promptly resolve their gas dispute, which has led to a cutoff in supplies to Europe

* Extensive Israeli airstrikes and ground operations in the Gaza Strip have caused $1.4 billion worth of damage to the enclave's economy, the Palestinian National Authority said

* India will not retract its demand that Pakistan hand over 40 people suspected of involvement in a bloody terrorist attack in Mumbai last November, the Indian foreign minister said

* Some 7,000 people took part in a protest against government anti-crisis policies in the Lithuanian capital of Vilnius on Friday, national media said

* Moscow is hoping that U.S. President-elect Barack Obama will review Russia's proposal for a collective Russian-American-European missile defense network, the Russian foreign minister said

* Ukraine has increased domestic natural gas output in the absence of Russian supplies, the CEO of national energy company Naftogaz said

* Nepal has introduced measures to deal with its first outbreak of the deadly bird flu virus in the eastern border region of the Himalayan country, the government's press secretary told reporters

* Russia is calling on the world community to do everything it can to put into place an Egyptian ceasefire plan for the Gaza Strip, the Russian foreign minister said

* Israeli troops and tanks withdrew from a densely populated southwest suburb of Gaza City on Friday, leaving behind at least 23 Palestinian bodies and dozens more injured, the head of the region's emergency services said

* Ukraine has again rejected an application from Gazprom for the transit of 99.2 million cubic meters of Russian gas through its territory to Europe, a spokesman for the Ukrainian energy company Naftogaz

* The Polish president has called for an alternative "gas summit" to be held in Ukraine on Friday, according to Polish media reports

BUSINESS

* The chief executives of Russian gas giant Gazprom and Italy's Eni have agreed to speed up the construction of the South Stream gas pipeline amid the current gas transit crisis, Gazprom said in a statement