Main news of January 8

 

WORLD

* Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero said that Moscow and Madrid would continue mutually beneficial cooperation in 2010

* U.S. President Barack Obama has urged intelligence services to improve the processing and integration of analytical information on possible terror attacks

* A Georgian Airways plane landed at Moscow's Domodedovo airport, the first direct flight between Russia and Georgia since the August 2008 war over South Ossetia

* The president of Iran said the unity and solidarity of the Muslim nations was key to their security and urged greater vigilance to foil enemy conspiracies, Press TV reported

* Tehran has notified Baku that it has unilaterally lifted visa requirements for Azerbaijani nationals, the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry said

* Some 50 flights were affected, trains were canceled and vehicles butted into one another as fog covered much of north India, national media reported

* African immigrants stormed through a southern Italian town, smashing shop windows and overturning rubbish bins, the ANSA news agency reported

* The Polish parliament has passed a more restrictive law on drunk driving, national media reported

* The Dutch Defense Ministry has moved to get more women into top functions as part of a government-wide effort to get more women into top jobs, national media reported

 

 

RUSSIA

 

* Russia must maintain a tough line against militant and criminal groups in the North Caucasus, President Dmitry Medvedev said

* Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has been invited to Poland to attend ceremonies to mark the 65th anniversary of the liberation of the Nazi German death camp at Auschwitz on January 27, national media reported

* Russian Interior Minister Rashid Nurgaliyev pledged that tough action would be taken against militants based in the country's North Caucasus republic of Dagestan

* A police officer has been shot dead in Makhachkala, the capital of Russia's North Caucasus republic of Dagestan

* The son of Soviet-era psychic Alan Chumak has been arrested after allegedly stabbing a security guard during a brawl at a cafe in Moscow

 

BUSINESS

 

* China has surpassed Germany to become the world's largest exporting country in 2009, according to China's Ministry of Commerce, a national daily reported

* Uranium mining in Meghalaya, a small state in northeast India, may start by the middle of this year, Chief Minister D D Lapang said

* Argentine President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner has signed a decree dismissing the head of the country's central bank after he refused to use currency reserves to pay off foreign debt