Main news of January 21

RUSSIA

* The Baltic Fleet's Neustrashimy missile frigate is in the Mediterranean Sea on its planned journey back to its base in Russia's Kaliningrad exclave, a Navy spokesman said

* Russia's prime minister signed on Wednesday a resolution to completely eliminate plain nickel and cathode copper export duties, but kept 10% duties in place for refined copper and copper alloys, a government spokesman 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 Tu-160 Blackjack and Tu-95MS Bear strategic bombers carried out on Wednesday regular patrols over the Arctic Ocean, a Russian Air Force spokesman said

* Russia's top seeds at the 2009 Australian Open, siblings Dinara Safina and Marat Safin, advance to the third round of the tournament on Wednesday along with four other Russian women

* 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

* The case of the murder of 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

* Members of Al-Qaeda are active in Russia's North Caucasus republics of Chechnya and Daghestan, a deputy interior minister said

* Russia's government paper, Rossiiskaya Gazeta, published constitutional amendments on Wednesday extending the presidential and parliamentary terms to six and five years, respectively

* Russian businessman and Chelsea FC owner Roman Abramovich has launched legal proceedings against Times Newspapers Limited over a January 18 Sunday Times article that said he was looking to sell the club

WORLD

* Latvia was saved from bankruptcy by international financial assistance that started to arrive in December, President Valdis Zatlers said

* The Iranian foreign minister on Wednesday accused Israel's leadership of committing war crimes in the Gaza Strip

* Hamas officials in Gaza were ordered to return to work on Wednesday after the end of a three-week Israeli military operation that left almost 1,300 dead in the enclave, a spokesman for the movement said

* Russian tycoon and ex-KGB officer Alexander Lebedev has agreed a deal to buy a 75.1% stake in British newspaper the Evening Standard for a nominal sum, the paper's owner said on Wednesday in an official statement

* Serbian Foreign Minister Vuk Jeremic has called the creation of the Kosovo Security Force (KSF) "completely unacceptable," a Belgrade radio station reported

* Russian gas transited via Ukraine continued flowing into Eastern Europe

* A Russian destroyer made a scheduled visit to Yemen's largest port of Aden on Wednesday, according to Yemen press reports

* Israel completed on Wednesday its troop pullout from Gaza more than three weeks after the start of its assault on the coastal enclave, the Israeli army's press service said

BUSINESS

* The Moscow Bank for Reconstruction and Development said on Wednesday its net profit calculated to Russian Accounting Standards declined 75% in 2008 year-on-year to 535.3 million rubles ($16 million)

* Inflation in Russia has been 1.2% so far this year, against 1.8% for the same period last year, the Federal Statistics Service said