Main news of February 1

RUSSIA

* The Russian Orthodox Church enthroned its new leader, Patriarch Kirill, at a ceremony held in the Christ the Savior Cathedral in Moscow

* Twenty-three people were killed while three others were rescued in a fire that destroyed a wooden house in the Republic of Komi in northwest Russia, the regional emergencies center said

* Russia will not press the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) member states for recognition of Abkhazia and South Ossetia, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said

* Russia lowered as of February 1 export duties on oil and petroleum products, responding to a fall in world oil prices amid the ongoing global financial crisis

WORLD

* The international community and the Islamic world should restore the Gaza Strip destroyed by Israel's recent three-week military offensive, Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki said

* Police in the breakaway republic of Abkhazia rejected Georgian media reports that two Russian soldiers were allegedly killed in an incident in Abkhazia