Main News of February 14

A roundup of what has happened in the past 24 hours

WORLD 

* Russia’s government said that it plans to send a delegation of diplomats and doctors to visit a Russian pilot currently serving a 20-year jail sentence in the US for attempted drug trafficking.

* Religious leaders in Uzbekistan have condemned St. Valentine's Day as a harmful holiday that contradicts both Islam and local traditions.

RUSSIA

* Russian lawmakers approved a bill to create a mixed electoral system that will reintroduce single-mandate elections in the next parliamentary vote.

* Russia’s Far East needs 3 trillion rubles ($85 billion) of investment through 2022 to maintain regional economic growth of 6 percent, the Far East Development Minister said.

* Russia will strengthen powers to seize cash and property belonging to alleged foreign criminals under legal reforms drawn up by the Justice Ministry, Izvestia newspaper reported.

* Only a single NGO has registered as a foreign agent under a hotly contested 2012 Russian law to regulate the activities of foreign-funded organizations, the Justice Ministry said.

* Russian communists have unveiled plans to erect a monument to Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin in a Siberian city where he spent time in his final exile before his rise to power, a local lawmaker said.

* Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov has offered a home in the Russian republic to another zoo giraffe facing death in Denmark.

 

DEFENSE

 

* Egypt has reached an initial agreement on how to implement a new Russian arms delivery deal worth over $3 billion, Vedomosti newspaper reported.

 

SPORTS

 

* Japanese figure skater Yuzuru Hanyu won Sochi Olympic gold after a free program that saw big errors from all leading medal contenders in the men's individual event.

* Britain won its first gold medal of the Sochi Olympics as Lizzy Yarnold sped to gold in the women’s skeleton by a commanding margin.

* Darya Domracheva of Belarus added the individual gold to her pursuit title at the Sochi Olympics, destroying a high-octane field in the 15 kilometer race.

* Acrobatic skill and a healthy dose of good fortune brought Alla Tsuper of Belarus the gold medal in women’s aerials skiing as all of her rivals crashed.

* Switzerland’s Dario Cologna claimed his second gold medal of the Sochi Olympics with a breathtaking victory in the men’s cross-country skiing 15 kilometer classical race.

* Alpine skiing produced another major surprise at the Sochi Olympics as Swiss outsider Sandro Viletta won the men’s super combined.

* Russia's women curlers broke a three-game losing streak with a 6-3 victory over Switzerland to revive their hopes of advancing to the playoffs at the Sochi Winter Olympics.

* Sweden put one foot into the Winter Olympic men's hockey quarter-finals with a narrow 1-0 win over Switzerland in Sochi.

* The Czech hockey team inflicted a 4-2 defeat on outsider Latvia to record its first win of the Sochi Winter Olympics.

* Russian figure skating star Evgeni Plushenko’s decision to pull out of the men’s competition of the Sochi Olympics, blaming injury, was criticized Friday by his old rival and former gold medalist Alexei Yagudin.