WORLD
* The United States warned on Saturday it may soon close its embassy in Syria over the worsening security situation there
* Over 3,000 Libyans in Benghazi rallied on Saturday to demand that Sharia law be the main source of the country’s legislation
* At least seven people have been killed as four coordinated attacks rocked Nigeria’s northern city of Kano
* Latvian Prime Minister Valdis Dombrovskis has called on citizens to oppose making Russian a second state language in the forthcoming referendum in February
* United States expect the European Union to take steps to pressure Iran back into negotiations on its controversial nuclear activity
RUSSIA
* Russian billionaire presidential candidate Mikhail Prokhorov promised on Saturday to sell his business if he wins March elections
* Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All-Russia will discuss the problems of Christians in the Middle East with Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas during a meeting in Moscow
* Kiev and Moscow are not discussing the sale of Ukrainian state assets to Russia as part of a future gas deal, Ukrainian Energy Minister Yury Boyko said
* Moscow authorities dismissed on Friday a plan, proposed by critics of Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, to hold a 50,000-strong march on February 4
