Main news of January 15

A roundup of what has happened in the past 24 hours

WORLD

* North Korea has threatened to stop dialogue with South Korean authorities following Seoul's adoption of a contingency plan in case of instability in North Korea

* The UN is asking for $560 million from the global community to help Haiti's quake victims, the organization's humanitarian chief said

* The head of Iran's police warned protesters on Friday that all emails and text messages in the Islamic republic are monitored, the ILNA news agency reported

* China's first gay beauty pageant, Mr. Gay China, was stopped by police on Friday five minutes before it was due to begin

* Iran's nuclear achievements will force its enemies to capitulate, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said

* Japan ended on Friday its naval anti-terrorism mission in the Indian Ocean aimed at supporting the U.S.-led Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan

 

RUSSIA

* The showing of a two-minute hardcore porno clip on an outdoor advertising screen in Moscow will be investigated, city officials said

* Russian producers are ready for the potential ban on U.S. poultry imports, a spokeswoman for one of Russia's largest meat manufacturers said

* The lower house of the Russian parliament on Friday ratified Protocol 14 of the European Convention on Human Rights, opening the way for European Court of Human Rights reform

* Moscow city authorities have denied Russian rights activists permission to hold events in memory of a lawyer and journalist gunned down last year in central Moscow

* A court in northwest Russia jailed on Friday two men in connection with an attack on an express train from Moscow to St. Petersburg in August 2007