Main news of January 22

A roundup of what has happened in the past 24 hours

WORLD

 

* Iran has rejected a proposal to hold bilateral talks on its nuclear program with the United States in Istanbul

* The EU's foreign policy chief said the six world powers are 'disappointed' as the two-day nuclear talks with Iran have ended with no breakthrough

* A federal court in New York has set the beginning of a trial against alleged Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout for September 12

* Poland plans to use its second government Tu-154 plane to reconstruct the crash that killed President Lech Kaczynski, a deputy head of the Polish investigation commission said

* Ukraine's opposition leader Yulia Tymoshenko has called on the country's opposition forces to unite

* Mexico's second largest airline, Interjet, chose Sukhoi Superjet 100 regional passenger plane among competitors for its high quality and affordable price

* The death toll from the severe storms and mudslides in the southeastern Brazilian state of Rio de Janeiro has reached 767, local authorities said

* Japan successfully launched its second-ever unmanned cargo ship to the International Space Station (ISS), the Japanese space agency JAXA said

*One miner was killed and another four received injuries as a blast struck a coal mine in western Georgia on early Saturday, the Imedi TV channel said

* The house where Austrian man imprisoned his daughter in a purpose-built dungeon for 24 years and fathered seven children with her is to be demolished, local media said

 

RUSSIA

* At least two people died and another five were injured when a fire broke out in a shopping center in the southwest Russian republic of Bashkiria, local emergencies said

* Russia must quickly modernize its nuclear deterrent focusing on the deployment of ballistic missiles capable of penetrating the most sophisticated missile defenses, a draft supplementary statement to the new START treaty ratification document said

* The Russian Air Force has dismissed media rumors about an imminent resignation of its commander-in-chief, Col. Gen. Alexander Zelin said

* Russian children rights ombudsman Pavel Astakhov elaborated on one more case of abuse of a Russian boy adopted by U.S. parents

* Two journalists from the northernmost Siberian city of Norilsk who vanished on January 20 were found safe and sound in the city Krasnoyarsk

* The pro-Kremlin United Russia party has launched a website announcing an online poll on the burial of Russian revolutionary Vladimir Lenin

*The Russian Foreign Ministry voiced concerns over the presentation in the United States of a book of a former Chechen militant

* Russian investigators are looking into the possibility that the mass murder in the southern Russian city of Stavropol could be drug-related, an official investigations spokesman

* A painting by St. Petersburg Governor Valentina Matviyenko was sold for 6 million rubles ($200,000) at a charity auction

 

SPORTS

 

* A declaration on Russia's official status as the host of the 2018 FIFA World Cup will be signed by FIFA and Russian officials on Sunday in St. Petersburg

* Russian tennis stars Vera Zvonareva reached the fourth round of the Australian Open in Melbourne

* Russian tennis stars Maria Sharapova and Svetlana Kuznetsova have advanced to the fourth round of Australian Open in Melbourne

 

SPACE

 

* Two Russian cosmonauts have successfully completed all assigned tasks during the first spacewalk by the crew of the International Space Station (ISS) in 2011