News of the Day, 18:00 Moscow time

* The third round of negotiations on a new Russia-EU cooperation agreement will take place in Brussels on February 13, Russia's EU envoy said

* Russia will be able to build a nuclear power plant in Belarus without a tender once the two ex-Soviet republics sign an inter-governmental agreement on civilian nuclear power, Russia's Rosatom said

* Russian missile destroyer Admiral Chabanenko left a naval shipyard in the country's Kaliningrad exclave on an urgent mission after having hurried repair work carried out, a shipyard spokesman said

* Russian gas transited via Ukraine continued flowing into Eastern Europe

* Ukrainian energy company Naftogaz said it would buy 5 billion cubic meters of gas at $360 per 1,000 cubic meters in the first quarter of 2009, and pledged to increase imports if prices dropped

* A summit of countries interested in the construction of a gas pipeline from Central Asia to Europe will be held on January 27 in Budapest, a diplomatic source in Brussels said

* Riot police detained some 30 people dressed as mummies who attempted to gather on Moscow's Red Square calling for the burial of Russian communist leader Vladimir Lenin, a police spokesman said

* The case of the murder of Stanislav Markelov, a lawyer who represented the family of a Chechen woman killed by a Russian military officer, has been passed to the Russian Investigation Committee, the committee said

* Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki accused Israel's leadership of committing war crimes in the Gaza Strip