Main news of January 23

A roundup of what has happened in the past 24 hours

WORLD

* Japanese Foreign Minister Seiji Maehara plans to pay a visit to Moscow in February hoping to tone down Russia's stance on the disputed South Kuril Islands, Japan's Kyodo news agency said

* Palestinian chief negotiator Saeb Erekat has rejected a plan for a Palestinian state in provisional borders drafted by the Israeli foreign minister

* The Turkish prime minister has dismissed a report by an Israeli inquiry commission justifying the actions of the Israeli troops during the Freedom Flotilla raid

* Bolivian President Evo Morales' Cabinet resigned in an expected move as the country's leader has completed the first year of his second term

* Preliminary results from the landmark South Sudan's referendum show that 99% of voters are in favor of independence, a spokesman for the commission said

* The Latvian Foreign Ministry announced a decision to ease visa requirements for Belarus regardless of the sanctions against Minsk which are being considered by the EU

* Thousands of Belgians took to the streets protesting against the country's long-running political crisis and the absence of federal government for months

* Six candidates are running in Portugal's presidential election

* A Ukrainian engineer who says he was held captive and forced to work at a Bangkok factory for 14 years will meet with officers of the Thai Department of Special Investigation on Monday to detail his allegations

* The world's highest restaurant At.mosphere opened in the world's tallest building in Dubai, Burj Khalifa, local media said

 

RUSSIA

* A Russian government commission has launched a probe into the causes of Saturday's fire in a shopping center in the southwest Russian republic of Bashkiria that killed two and injured another five people, a spokesman for the regional administration said

* The fire that broke out in a shopping center in the southwest Russian republic of Bashkiria on Saturday injured 15 people while two people were killed in the blaze, the republican health minister said

* Russia could overcome the financial crisis by 2012, a top government official said

* Russian President Dmitry Medvedev signed a decree to appoint Police Col. Alexander Ilyin as the new chief of Moscow's traffic police, the Kremlin reported

* More than 200,000 Russians have cast their vote in an online poll on the burial of Russian revolutionary Vladimir Lenin launched by the pro-Kremlin United Russia party

 

SPORTS

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

* Russian tennis star and former World No. 1 Maria Sharapova was beaten by Germany's Andrea Petkovic in the fourth round of Australian Open in Melbourne