Main news of February 2

RUSSIA

* Russian international Andrei Arshavin has signed for Arsenal, media reports indicated on Monday evening

* Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Grushko expressed concern over the build-up of Georgian troops on the border with South Ossetia at a meeting with EU envoys in Moscow on Monday

* A Moscow military court put off on Monday the trial of suspects in the murder of Russian investigative journalist Anna Politkovskaya until Tuesday

* A Moscow skyscraper planned to be one of the world's tallest buildings will not be finished until at least 2016, four years behind schedule, a business daily said on Monday, referring to the Moscow mayor

* Five people, including a senior official and police officer, were killed overnight after being attacked by gunmen in the southern Russian Republic of Daghestan, a local police source said

WORLD

* Libyan leader Muammar Qaddafi, the new head of the African Union, said on Monday he would continue to press for the creation of a pan-African state, an Egyptian TV channel reported

* The Ukrainian parliament has come to a preliminary agreement on a decree to set the country's next parliamentary elections for January 17, 2010, a deputy speaker told journalists

* Cardinal Walter Kasper, president of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity in the Holy See, on Monday handed Russian Patriarch Kirill a personal message from Pope Benedict XVI

* An official UEFA delegation arrived in Ukraine on Monday to check on the country's preparations to joint host the Euro 2012 soccer championships, the Ukrainian government said

* The Belarusian gas pipeline construction company Belgazstroy has suspended work in Venezuela, while two other Belarusian contracts are in doubt, the Venezuelan ambassador to Minsk said

* Pirates have demanded a $6 million ransom for the release of the German gas tanker Longchamp that was captured last Thursday in the Gulf of Aden, German N-24 television reported

* Israel's Air Force has attacked southern Gaza in response to mortar fire by a group of militants, an Israeli army spokeswoman said

* The head of the Church of England has congratulated the new leader of the Russian Orthodox Church, Patriarch Kirill, on his election and invited him to Britain

* Doctors have removed almost all the dioxin from the body of Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko, his doctor said at a news conference

* Israel is not planning any large-scale operations in the Gaza Strip despite rocket attacks in the south and will have to "wait and see" if the ceasefire holds, the country's defense minister has said

* North Korea called for verification checks of South Korea on Monday to try and resolve issues and restart stalled negotiations on the communist state's atomic weapons program

* At least 21 police officers were killed in a suicide attack on a police compound in the southern Afghan city of Tarin Kot, a source in the country's Interior Ministry said

* Venezuela declared a new national holiday for Monday to mark 10 years since Hugo Chavez first became president, but with Venezuelans - and Latin America - increasingly divided over his policies

* Kazakhstan's state debt increased by 412.4 billion tenge ($3.4 billion) to 1.33 trillion tenge ($11 billion) in 2008, Kazakh Finance Minister Bolat Zhamishev said

* Around 20 million rural workers in China were forced to return home after losing their jobs as a consequence of the global financial crisis, the Xinhua news agency said

* Russia and Indonesia finalized on Monday the handover of three Russian-made Su-30MK2 Flanker multi-role fighters

* Israel carried out airstrikes on the Gaza Strip overnight after Palestinian militants launched rockets on southern Israel, local media said

BUSINESS

* The Evraz Group (LSE: EVR), Russia's largest steel and mining company, announced on Monday the completion of a deal to sell the remaining 49% in NS Group to TMK for $508 million

* The St. Petersburg Arbitration Court has overturned a 1.35 billion ruble ($37 million) fine earlier imposed on Gazprom Neft, the Russian antitrust service reported