Main News of January 29

A roundup of what has happened in the past 24 hours

WORLD

* Canadian authorities have imposed visa bans on unspecified Ukrainian officials linked to the recent violence in Kiev, CBC News reported

* Russia warned Ukraine that it will halt the implementation of a financial aid package until the crisis-hit former Soviet nation has formed a new government

* American astronauts will continue to fly to the International Space Station aboard Russian spacecraft through 2017, NASA said

RUSSIA

* Russia’s upper house of parliament approved two bills to stiffen penalties for extremism-related crimes and increase security inspections on public transportation

*Several major Russian cable and satellite TV companies said Wednesday they would stop broadcasting liberal-leaning Dozhd channel in response to it running an online poll that officials say dishonored World War II veterans

* Inspections of Russia’s defense industry have uncovered “a huge number of violations of federal law,” and the country must move to tighten oversight of military procurements, the prosecutor general said

* The Russia-Belarus Union State will allocate 3.2 billion rubles ($91.5 million) in 2014 for joint military, defense industry and security projects, the body’s top official said

BUSINESS

* The Russian ruble continued its slide to reach historic lows as a government minister warned that the currency’s continued plunge could cause a spike in inflation

* Russian tycoon Suleiman Kerimov is looking to cash out of gold producer Polyus Gold with the sale of his $3.7 billion stake in the latest of a series of divestments of large assets in Russian companies, the Vedomosti newspaper reported

* Russia’s anti-monopoly regulator said that it had approved a plan of billionaire Mikhail Prokhorov's Onexim Group to buy a 21.75 percent stake of major potash fertilizer company Uralkali