Main news of January 29

A roundup of what happened in the past 24 hours

WORLD

* Embattled Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak has appointed a former civil aviation minister, Ahmed Shafiq, as the new prime minister

* Residents of Cairo have joined the army to protect public and private property in the Egyptian capital, engulfed by looters, state TV reported 

* Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak dismissed the country's government following several days of protests

* Cell phone services, suspended on Friday as mass protests against President Hosni Mubarak continued, were completely restored in Egypt

* Authorities in Egypt extended the length of a curfew imposed following the massive anti-government protests, state television said

* U.S. investigators are putting alleged Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout under intense psychological pressure, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said

* The New York Star tanker has been twice attacked by pirates in the Indian Ocean, but the attempts were thwarted, the Maritime Assistance Center said

* An Iranian-Dutch woman, detained after taking part in anti-government protests in 2009, has been hanged for drug smuggling by Iran, the semi-official Mehr news agency reported

* The editor of the Belarusian opposition website Charter 97, Natalya Radina, has been freed from a pre-trial detention centre, the website said

* Ukraine plans to expand its cooperation with Russia in the military sphere, Chief of General Staff Lt. Gen. Hryhoriy Pedchenko said

* Belarusian ex-presidential candidate Vladimir Neklyaev and another opposition member have been freed from jail, his lawyer said

 

RUSSIA

* Russia has high chances of joining the World Trade Organization (WTO) this year, WTO Director-General Pascal Lamy said

* The deadly terrorist blast at Moscow’s Domodedovo airport on January 24 was carried out by a resident of the Russia’s North Caucasus region and was aimed primarily at foreigners, investigators said

* Investigators said they had discovered the identities of those responsible for the January 24 bomb at Moscow's Domodedovo airport that killed 35 and injured dozens

* The bomb that killed 35 people at Moscow’s Domodedovo airport on Monday may have been triggered by a phone call, a Russian paper said

* Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has called on Egyptian authorities to take measures to ensure the safety of Russian tourists in the riot-hit Arab country

* Visitors were evacuated from two shopping malls in southeast and southwest Moscow amid a terror threat, a police spokesperson said

* Police have found no bombs at large shopping malls in southern Moscow, which were evacuated amid terror threat, a police spokesman has said

* Russia needs to strengthen the real economy and build a convenient urban infrastructure in order to establish an international financial center in Moscow, leading foreign experts said in Davos

* Moscow believes that the only way to restore peace in Egypt is to make sure the actions of all sides are in line with the law

* Russia's new ambassador to Britain, Alexander Yakovenko, is arriving in London

* It is too early to discuss limiting tactical nuclear weapons (TNW) with the United States, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said

* A Moscow children's puppet theater is fighting for its survival after being told by Russian oil giant LUKoil to move out

* A flu epidemic is sweeping through Russia, with hundreds of kindergartens and schools quarantined, but Moscow's top health official sought to allay public concerns over the outbreak

* A cow in Russia’s southern Urals republic of Bashkortostan has given birth to four cows in what has been described as an extremely rare occurrence

 

SPORTS

* Dynamo Moscow striker Andriy Voronin has turned down a move to English Premier League side West Bromwich Albion, Sovetski Sport said