An 82-year-old man was found in the Andreapolsky district of the Tver region, who has never washed himself in his entire life, journalists from the regional newspaper Tverskaya Zhizn told Interfax. Yakov Yuganovich Kyunap lives as a hermit in the vicinity of the village of Maryino. The old man lives exclusively on what he grows in his garden: potatoes and beans. In childhood and adolescence, he and his mother lived in a dugout in the forest thicket, and then moved to an abandoned hut.

The interests of Mikhail Khodorkovsky and Platon Lebedev in the US are being lobbied in the US government by one of the partners of the law firm Covington & Burling, Stuart Eisenshtat. According to the Washington Post, Eisenstat said his efforts were aimed at getting the US government to fight for the rule of law in Russia, especially with regard to the Yukos affair. He officially registered as a lobbyist.

Nature forced a thief who stole and swallowed a diamond ring to give proof of his guilt, reports Reuters. Mary Flowers, 38, suspected of stealing the ring, was held in a holding cell under constant surveillance. The jewelry store's surveillance camera recorded how she put in her mouth and swallowed a ring with a 1.5-carat stone worth $20,000. The woman denied her guilt, but X-ray denied her testimony.

On Thursday evening, several explosions occurred near the headquarters of the American administration in the center of Baghdad. According to Reuters, at least three rockets exploded. Sirens sound in the city. There are no reports of casualties or damage yet.

On Saturday, the Communists will hold a plenum at which, according to Gazeta, Communist Party leader Gennady Zyuganov may lose his post. Instead, the head of the Moscow city committee of the Communist Party, Alexander Kuvaev, who is patronized by "party cashier" Valentin Kuptsov, will be recommended for the post of chairman of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation, the newspaper reports.

Evgeny Giner, who holds the post of President of PFC CSKA, has been elected Acting President of the Russian Football Premier League (RFPL). This was reported to RIA Novosti by a source in the Premier League. The previous head of the Premier League, Vitaly Mutko, left his post in connection with his election to the Federation Council. Tatevos Surinov was elected Executive Director of RFPL.

The Basmanny Court refused to satisfy the petition of the lawyers of the Chairman of the Board of Directors of CJSC MFO "Menatep" Platon Lebedev, who challenged the representative of the prosecution Valery Lakhtin. It is reported by RIA Novosti with reference to the lawyer Yevgeny Baru. According to Baru, now the lawyers have challenged the judge of the Basmanny Court of Moscow, Andrey Rasnovsky.

Foreign Ministers of Russia and Ukraine Igor Ivanov and Konstantin Grishchenko signed on Friday in Moscow an intergovernmental agreement on the settlement of claims arising from the Tu-154 air crash in 2001. It is reported by RIA Novosti. The crash of a Russian Tu-154 aircraft on a flight from Tel Aviv to Novosibirsk occurred on October 4, 2001 as a result of a Ukrainian anti-aircraft missile hitting it, fired during Ukrainian air defense exercises in Crimea.

Over the past two weeks in the Western District, two children living in neighboring high-rise buildings along Sholokhov Street have become victims of perverted pedophiles, reports Moskovsky Komsomolets . Two weeks ago, a pedophile attacked a boy in the entrance of house 9 on Sholokhov Street on the 10th floor. The pervert ambushed the boy on the landing when he was returning home from a walk, and lured him to the top floor.

The Basmanny Court of Moscow on Friday at 10.20 began a closed session to consider the petition of the Prosecutor General's Office to extend the period of detention of Platon Lebedev, chairman of the board of directors of MFO MENATEP, co-owner of the Yukos oil company. Lebedev's term of detention expires on December 30. Present in the courtroom are Platon Lebedev, his lawyers Yevgeny Baru and Anton Drel, prosecutor Valery Lakhtin.

On Thursday, British scientists confirmed that an American cow has been diagnosed with spongiform encephalopathy, or mad cow disease. This was reported by the US Department of Agriculture, according to AP. Specialists at the Weybridge Veterinary Laboratory told the US authorities that their research confirmed the conclusions reached by American colleagues who examined the brain of a sick cow. The final results of the study of the British will appear by the end of this week.

In Pskov, unknown people tried to set fire to the building of the city administration, RIA Novosti was told on Friday at the regional police department. "The incident happened the day before. An unidentified person threw a glass bottle with a Molotov cocktail in the lobby of the city administration building and disappeared," the source said. According to him, the police officers who were in the building extinguished the fire on their own, there were no casualties.

Hundreds of lamps will be lit on December 27 in the evening in the only Hindu temple in Moscow, which is threatened with destruction, Newsru.com reports. Desperate Moscow Hare Krishnas hope to save their temple for 25,000 followers of Hinduism living in the capital with the ancient Vedic Nama-Yagya ritual and joint prayers.

On Thursday, a light plane crashed in Nevada. All six people (4 adults and two children) who were on board died. According to official reports, the plane crashed at the North Las Vegas airport during takeoff, according to AP. Immediately after taking off, the pilot of the Beechcraft Bonanza aircraft informed the dispatchers about the danger and tried to return to the airport. However, at that moment the plane lost control and crashed nose into the ground.

A traffic jam 7 km long has formed on the highway of the Kstovsky direction in the Nizhny Novgorod region, Gazeta.ru reports with reference to the KRZh. According to the propaganda department of the traffic police department of the Nizhny Novgorod region, some drivers have been standing there for two days already. The traffic police department has asked drivers to refrain from traveling in the Kstovo direction until the traffic jam is cleared.