Main News of January 17

A roundup of what has happened in the past 24 hours

WORLD

* Syria’s government is ready to join forces with its current opponents to combat Islamic terrorists, the country’s foreign minister said

* Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych signed off on much-criticized anti-protest legislation that that one prominent rights group has dubbed a “charter for oppression”

* US President Barack Obama ordered a halt to government control of troves of phone data collected by US intelligence services, a move that comes amid the uproar over disclosures by fugitive leaker Edward Snowden about secret US surveillance programs

RUSSIA

* Russia's President Vladimir Putin said that everything possible was being done to keep the Sochi Olympics safe, and that showing any weakness would be playing into the hands of terrorists

* Gay people should feel comfortable at the Sochi Olympics but “leave children in peace,” Russia’s President Vladimir Putin said

* The owner of a Russian trawler that was seized by Senegal on suspicion of illegal fishing has paid a $1 million fine to release the vessel, a Russian state fisheries spokesman said, signaling a possible end to a dispute that has ensnarled relations with the West African nation for two weeks