Main news of January 10

A roundup of what has happened in the past 24 hours.

WORLD

*The wife of the alleged Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout, extradited to the United States from Thailand late last year, said she would petition to the U.S. Federal Court for his release on bail

*Spain's Basque separatist group ETA should surrender and dissolve itself, Spanish Deputy Premier and the Interior minister, Alfredo Perez Rubalcaba said, following ETA's declaration of the permanent ceasefire

*Pope Benedict XVI has urged the leaders of the Middle East and Muslim states to ensure the safety for Christians following the recent church bombing in Egypt's Alexandria, which left 23 people dead and dozens injured

*India's first indigenous light combat aircraft, Tejas, was handed over to the Indian Air Force for initial operational clearance, the Indian Air Force chief has said

*North Korea proposed South in an official letter to hold talks between the countries, while Seoul put forward its own conditions for the talks the Yonhap news agency reported citing a government source as saying

*Jared Loughner, suspected in deadly shooting rampage and assassination attempt on U.S. congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords in Arizona, that killed six and wounded another 14, may face death penalty, CBS News said

*Germany, Great Britain, Sweden and Poland support sanctions against Belarus over the post-election crackdown on the opposition, a diplomatic source said

*U.S. congressman Danny Davis said his office received an e-mail life threat on Sunday, Chicago Tribune said

*Death toll from Iranian plan crash reached 77, Iranian news agency ISNA said

*U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates and Chinese Defense Minister Liang Guanglie resumed defense dialogue to improve relations between the countries, world media said

*The Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force will hold drills in the East China Sea involving U.S. warships

*The European Parliament's Subcommittee on Human Rights will discuss the verdict to Russian ex-oil tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky and his business partner Platon Lebedev

*U.S. President Barack Obama has called on U.S. citizens to observe a moment of silence to show respect for the victims the Arizona shooting that killed six people and wounded congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords

 

RUSSIA

*The pro-Kremlin youth nationalist movement Stal (Steel) has launched a campaign against Russian jailed opposition leader, Boris Nemtsov, mulling the rumors that the politician had been sexually abused

*The mastermind of the 1990s MMM pyramid scheme that robbed millions of Russians of their life savings has unveiled his new financial project

*Pickets in support of Russian opposition leader Boris Nemtsov, who was arrested by police after a rally on December 31, continued in Moscow, Ekho Moskvy radio station said

*Russian tennis star Maria Sharapova climbed up 2 spots in the Women Tennis Association's rankings to 16th place

*Russia's Krasin and Admiral Makarov icebreakers began a rescue operation to release a refrigerator vessel caught in heavy ice floe in the Sea of Okhotsk

*Russia's children's rights commissioner Pavel Astakhov has urged Russian national Rimma Salonen, who is fighting with the Finnish court for the right to be with her seven-year-old son, to appeal to the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR)