Main News of February 17

A roundup of what has happened in the past 24 hours

SPORTS

* The Sochi Winter Olympics were hit by their first major disruption as thick fog forced the cancelation of two events and placed more in jeopardy

* Russia won its first Olympic gold medal in bobsled in Sochi, with victory for Alexander Zubkov and Alexei Voevoda in the two-man event

* Russia’s Elena Ilinykh and Nikita Katsalapov won bronze in the Winter Olympics ice dance Monday with a “Swan Lake” performance that delighted the home crowd in Sochi

* The snowflake that failed to turn into one of the five Olympic rings at the opening ceremony of the Sochi Winter Games will be fixed in time for Sunday's closing show, Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Kozak said

WORLD

* An amnesty law to drop criminal cases against hundreds of pro-EU protesters in Ukraine entered into force

* The United States’ top diplomat accused Russia of hindering a peaceful solution to the conflict in Syria by supplying its government with arms and aid

* Russia is alarmed by reports that the Syrian opposition is being reorganized around a new leadership opposed to further peace talks, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said

RUSSIA

* Russia will form a new strategic military command by the end of 2014 to protect its interests in the Arctic, a high-ranking military source said

* A Russian pilot sentenced to 20 years in prison in the US for drug trafficking has appealed to President Vladimir Putin to facilitate his transfer back to Russia, his lawyer said