Main news of February 4

A roundup of what has happened in the past 24 hours

WORLD

* U.S. President Barack Obama will meet with Tibetan spiritual leader Dalai Lama in February despite China's warnings, White House spokesman Robert Gibbs announced during a press briefing

* From two to six people were killed and up to 20 wounded in a car bombing in downtown Kandahar on Thursday, according to reports at the administrative center of Kandahar Province in southern Afghanistan

* A contract on the delivery of advanced S-300 air defense systems to Iran has been stagnated by technical reasons, the Iranian ambassador to Russia said

* Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko, who is facing a presidential runoff on Sunday against frontrunner Viktor Yanukovych, threatened on Thursday to replay the "orange revolution" over presidential election amendments

* Iran has no plans to develop nuclear weapons because the country is strong enough to protect its interests without them, the Iranian ambassador to Russia said

* Ukraine's president signed on Thursday amendments to election laws just days ahead of the February 7 presidential runoff, the presidential website said

* Over 30 Taliban militants have been killed in a NATO military operation in southern Afghanistan, Helmand provincial government spokesman Daud Ahmadi said

* Kazakhstan's parliament ratified an agreement on Thursday on establishing a post-Soviet security group's rapid reaction force

* President Barack Obama has ruled out that the U.S. would again include North Korea on its list of states that sponsor terrorism

* A senior Fatah official arrived in the Gaza Strip, on the first visit of its kind since Hamas took control of the enclave more than two years ago

RUSSIA

* Russian Orthodox Church leaders called on Christians to be firm in defending traditional marriage and lamented the family crisis in the country

* The Russian Foreign Ministry described on Thursday a decision by seven Western partners in the Group of Eight leading nations not to invite Moscow to a ministerial meeting in Canada as "incorrect" and said it reflected old stereotypes

* Russian President Dmitry Medvedev on Thursday signed a law on the ratification of Protocol 14 of the European Convention on Human Rights, opening the way for European Court of Human Rights reforms

* A Moscow court overturned on Thursday an earlier court ruling that found a photo correspondent covering an unsanctioned protest guilty of taking part in it

* Members of the ruling United Russia party led by Prime Minister Vladimir Putin are in Russia's Baltic exclave of Kaliningrad to discuss the reasons for a recent massive anti-government demonstration