Main News Of January 24

WORLD

* The White House called North Korea’s plans to hold nuclear tests “needlessly provocative

RUSSIA

* The thrust-reversal system failed on a Red Wings Tupolev Tu-204 airliner, which crashed at Moscow's Vnukovo airport on December 29 killing five crewmembers, investigators said

* The opposition party A Just Russia threatened to expel two lawmakers from its ranks unless they cut ties with political movements involved in protests against the rule of President Vladimir Putin

* Council of Europe (CE) Secretary General Thorbjorn Jagland praised Russia’s decision to request publication of a report into torture, which makes a critical assessment of treatment of detained people in Russia's North Caucasus region

* St. Petersburg’s unique children’s cancer treatment center is not on the list of possible facilities to be converted into a hospital for Russian judges, a presidential administration spokesman said

DEFENSE

* A senior Russian defense industry official described as “absurd” on Thursday a previously-agreed deal to purchase two French-built Mistral assault ships for the Russian Navy

BUSINESS

* Yandex, known as the Russian equivalent of Google, has launched Wonder, a voice social search app, on Apple’s iOS platform for the United States, the Russian internet company said

* Bulgarian ex-prime minister King Simeon II has urged his fellow countrymen to vote in a referendum on the future of the Belene nuclear power plant project, according to a statement posted on his website

CRIME

* Russian security forces have killed two key insurgent leaders in Chechnya, the Interior Ministry said

* Police have uncovered the embezzlement of hundreds of millions of rubles of state funds from Russia’s Strategic Missile Forces (RVSN), the Interior Ministry said

ART&LIVING

* Islamic relics connected with the Prophet Muhammad, the founder of Islam, have been delivered by a special flight from the United Arab Emirates to Grozny, the capital of the Russian North Caucasus republic of Chechnya, where they will be put on show, the republic’s Muftiyat reported

SPORT

* Sport is a crucial weapon for Russia to fight its demographic crisis by keeping people healthy, President Vladimir Putin said