Main news of January 16

A roundup of what has happened in the past 24 hours

WORLD

*At least eleven people died and another eleven were injured after a five-story residential building collapsed on Monday in the Lebanese capital of Beirut

* The Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) said on Monday that Kazakhstan’s parliamentary elections “did not meet key democratic principles."

* Iran has arrested several people in the killing of a nuclear scientist last week that Tehran blames on Israel and the United States, parliamentary speaker Ali Larijani told state Al-Alam TV, Tehran Times daily said

* The United States and the United Kingdom continue to build up their regional military presence in the wake of Iranian statements about the possibility of blocking the Strait of Hormuz

 

RUSSIA

* The head of a regional anti-monopoly department in central Russia has been seriously wounded in an attack by unidentified gunmen, a police source said

* Russia's aviation watchdog annulled a certificate of the Russian low-cost Avianova company whose flights had been suspended since October 10, the watchdog said

* Liberal leader Grigory Yavlinsky has collected two million signatures needed to enter the presidential election on March 4

* Russian Internet company Mail.ru Group on Monday announced the launch of its own multimedia micro blogging service Futubra.com – a Russian analogue of Twitter.

* Russian regional governors will be elected by a direct popular vote, President Dmitry Medvedev said in a note to a bill reinstating gubernatorial elections that he submitted to parliament on Monday.