Main news of February 5

WORLD

* Ukraine and the European Union have agreed on the priorities for their bilateral relations in 2009, the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry said

* The implementation of bilateral Russian and Bulgarian energy projects is particularly important in these times of global financial crisis, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said

* A Ukrainian cargo ship captured by Somali pirates in September with 20 crewmembers on board was released on Thursday after a ransom was paid, the head of Ukraine's external intelligence service said

* Ukraine's parliament has voted against a motion of no-confidence in Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko's government initiated by the opposition Party of Regions

* Hamas left the latest round of talks in Cairo on a lasting Israeli-Palestinian ceasefire with no agreement in place, the militant Palestinian movement said on its website

* A trial run of the Bushehr nuclear power plant in southern Iran is scheduled for this year, the head of Russia's state nuclear power corporation Rosatom said

* Russia and its International Space Station partners have an oral agreement to continue using the orbiter until 2020, the president of leading Russian spacecraft maker RSC Energia said

* The European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg on Thursday ordered Russia to pay 300,000 euros ($384,000) in connection with three cases of abduction and torture

* Israel's navy has seized a Lebanese ship carrying humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip, a spokesman for the Israel Defense Forces said

* Former Cuban leader Fidel Castro criticized U.S. President Barack Obama's policies towards the Latin American country in his latest online essay, regional press said

* Israeli special forces killed a 21-year-old Palestinian Islamic Jihad commander at his home in the West Bank, an Israeli Army spokesman said

RUSSIA

* Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said on Thursday he had issued orders for comprehensive inspections of all Russian retirement homes following a deadly fire at a care facility in northwest Russia

* The Russian Navy dismissed on Thursday media reports claiming that the Russian Black Sea Fleet, based in Ukraine, had been put on alert and was preparing to urgently go to sea

* Four militants were killed on Thursday in a special operation in the southern Russian republic of Daghestan, the Federal Security Service (FSB) said

* Two more Russian military officials from units deployed in Chechnya have been detained in connection with the theft of more than 64 million rubles ($1.76 million), a Defense Ministry official said

* A former Federal Security Service officer charged with revealing the address of journalist Anna Politkovskaya to her suspected killers has retracted his earlier statement in court, claiming he was under pressure

* A former deputy mayor of Chechnya's capital, Grozny, was gunned down in Moscow overnight in what police are treating as a contract killing, a police source said

BUSINESS

* Russian oil export revenues in 2008 grew 33% year-on-year to $151.7 billion, while oil export in physical terms was down 7% to 221.6 million tons, the Federal Customs Service said

* Consumer prices in Russia grew 2.4% in January, the country's top statistics body said