Main news of January 10

 

WORLD

 

* Croats were voting in a presidential runoff with a leftist opposition candidate running against the populist Zagreb mayor

 

* Outgoing Croatian President Stjepan Mesic could become head of a company to build Croatia's segment of the South Stream gas pipeline, if Zagreb joins the project, Croatian newspaper Jutarnji List reported

 

* Ahmed Jibril, leader of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine - General Command (PFLP-GC), said there were no guarantees of captured Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit's safety

 

* The Greek Cypriot authorities rejected proposals by the Turkish Cypriot leader on state regulations in case of the reunification of Cyprus, local media reported

 

* At least 86 people have been killed by the drug mafia in Mexico over the past few days, the local Excelsior newspaper said

 

* Some 25,000 people were left without electricity as a powerful quake damaged power lines in California

 

RUSSIA

* Police killed a militant leader in a special operation in Russia's North Caucasus Republic of Dagestan, a police spokesman said

 

* The first power unit of the Volgodonsk nuclear power plant in south Russia was shut down by an emergency protection system, the plant's spokesman said.

 

* Heavy fines and a 0:5 technical defeat were imposed on West Siberia's Omsk Avangard and the Moscow Region's Vityaz hockey clubs after their players staged a fight on the ice, disrupting a game in Russia's Continental Hockey League

 

* Russia and Belarus failed to agree on Russian oil supplies to the ex-Soviet state, but are willing to continue negotiations, a spokesman for the Belarusian President said