Main News of January 5

A roundup of what has happened in the past 24 hours

WORLD

* An Australian icebreaker carrying 52 passengers who were retrieved from an icebound ship in the Antarctic resumed its journey home on Saturday, leaving behind another two icebreakers trapped in pack ice

* International Olympic Committee president Thomas Bach on Saturday welcomed steps taken by Russian President Vladimir Putin to lift a ban on protests during the Sochi Winter Games next month

* Estonian criminal police have detained the head of a local anti-fascist group as part of an investigation into alleged corruption, Estonian TV channels reported

* Uzbekistan’s customs officers stopped some 20 luxury vehicles stolen in the EU countries from entering Tajikistan last year, local media reported

* Police dismissed reports Sunday that the statue of Russian revolutionary leader Vladimir Lenin was toppled by vandals in southern Ukraine

* Several thousand people gathered Sunday in downtown Kiev for the first opposition rally of the new year

RUSSIA

* Former Russian oil tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky has arrived in Switzerland from Germany, where he had been staying since his release from a Russian jail, his spokesman said

* A man driving a car containing more than 45 kilograms of heroin worth about $1.5 million has been arrested and charged in Moscow, Russian officials said

* A Russian fishing trawler detained by Senegal’s navy Saturday has arrived under escort in the port of Dakar, the ship’s owner said

* Pilots from Russia’s Northern Fleet will undergo retraining in 2014 to master the modernized Ilyushin Il-38N anti-submarine aircraft, a military official told journalists

* A Russian man who found a stash of World War II-era mortar bombs blew one up near his house and attempted to sell the others, but was thwarted by police, the Interior Ministry said

*The captain of a Russian fishing trawler detained by Senegal’s navy has no plans to leave the vessel although he needs medical aid, Russia's federal fisheries agency said