In Egypt, more than 50 passengers on a bus were killed when it fell into an irrigation canal near the city of El Minya, located 200 kilometers south of Cairo. The bus driver tried to avoid a collision with a truck and swerved off the road. According to the latest data from the AP agency, 53 people became victims of the disaster. Rescuers spent several hours removing the bodies of the victims from the canal. Nine bus passengers were hospitalized.

About 100 thousand households in central France were left without electricity on December 14 due to snowfalls that continued for the second day, Le Figaro reports, citing data from the energy company Electricite de France (EDF). The departments most affected were Puy-de-Dome, Aveyron, Lozere, Cantal, Haute-Loire and Correze. Up to 60 centimeters of snow fell in some areas of the Massif Central. Repairers are often unable to reach damaged power lines due to heavy snow drifts.

In Moscow, 90 people were detained who were planning to take part in the unauthorized “March of Dissent” in the city center. As Viktor Biryukov, head of the information and public relations department of the Moscow Main Internal Affairs Directorate, told Interfax , “no one ever came” to Triumfalnaya Square, where the rally participants were announced to gather. A Lenta.Ru correspondent reported that the police cordoned off the square and detained activists who were trying to hold a march.

The National Gallery of Scotland has raised the £50 million needed to buy Titian's painting "Diana and Actaeon" from its owner, the Duke of Sutherland, the British newspaper The Times writes on Sunday. Funds for the purchase of the painting, exhibited at the National Gallery in Edinburgh since 1945, had to be raised by December 31, 2008. Otherwise, the owner of the canvas was going to put “Diana and Actaeon” up for public auction.

On December 14, the anniversary of the Decembrist uprising, supporters of the Other Russia movement tried to organize a “March of Dissent” in the center of Moscow. The police cordoned off Triumfalnaya Square in advance, where the gathering of participants in the unauthorized rally had been scheduled, and began to detain the arriving oppositionists.

On Sunday evening, an 18-year-old student from Kazakhstan was stabbed to death in the southwest of Moscow, the Interfax agency reports , citing a source in the city’s law enforcement agencies. Passers-by found a young man with a stab wound in the stomach at about 21:20 near house 2 on Butlerov Street. The ambulance doctors who arrived at the scene pronounced the young man dead. He died from loss of blood after a direct hit to the liver with a knife.

North Korea has toughened penalties for defectors who try to cross the border illegally. This was reported by Reuters with reference to representatives of humanitarian organizations and journalists opposed to the government of Kim Jong Il . A Radio Free North Korea journalist said that defectors face a quick public trial and a prison sentence of more than one year, although previously the usual punishment was six months in prison.

In Turkmenistan, voting began on Sunday in the elections of deputies of parliament - the Mejlis - of the fourth convocation, RIA Novosti reports . At 08:00 local time (06:00 Moscow time), 2,118 polling stations in Turkmenistan and 27 polling stations abroad opened. Voting will last until 18:00 (16:00 local time). For the first time in the history of Turkmenistan, international observers - from the CIS, the UN and the OSCE - will observe the voting process.

On the occasion of the 60th anniversary of the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the British human rights organization Reprieve published a list of 33 songs that US intelligence officers used to torture prisoners at Guantanamo Bay. The list includes AC/DC's "Hell's Bells" and "Shoot to Thrill", Bruce Springsteen's hit "Born in the USA", Metallica's "Enter Sandman", three songs by rapper Eminem (White America, Kim and Slim Shady).

The Central Commission for Elections and Referendums in Turkmenistan declared the elections of parliamentary deputies valid. According to official data, by 12:00 local time more than 56 percent of voters had voted, Interfax reported . For the first time, citizens of Turkmenistan living abroad were able to take part in the elections. 27 polling stations have been opened at the embassies and consular offices of Turkmenistan. Voting at the Turkmen Embassy in Moscow began at 08.00.

In Kyiv, they began to restore heat supply to houses in areas cut off from hot water due to Kyivenergo's debts to the Gas of Ukraine company. To completely restore the supply of hot water, Kievenergo will need at least two days in accordance with technological standards. This was reported on the company's official website. Meanwhile, the media relations department of the Secretariat of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine announced that heat and hot water supply have already been restored.

A fire occurred in Petrozavodsk (Republic of Karelia), killing five people. The fire service told the Interfax agency that the fire broke out in a two-story unused building slated for demolition. Firefighters managed to put out the fire in two hours. The bodies of five people of no fixed abode were found in the building. RIA Novosti reports that the fire occurred on the construction site, in an abandoned non-residential wooden building.

The administration of US President Barack Obama will have the post of special envoy for the Middle East, Ha'aretz newspaper writes, citing sources in the Israeli government. According to the publication, the special representative for the Middle East will report directly to the US President and Secretary of State - this post in the Obama administration will be filled by Hillary Clinton .

Somali President Abdullah Yusuf Ahmed dismissed the transitional government of Prime Minister Nur Hassan Hussein on December 14, promising to appoint a new head of the cabinet in the coming days, AFP reports . “Nur Hasan Hussein fails to cope with his responsibilities, and I am forced to save the country,” said Abdullah Yusuf Ahmed.

India has denied information about an alleged violation of Pakistani airspace by one of its aircraft, AFP reports . According to Indian Air Force spokesman Mahesh Upasani, these reports are not true. Earlier, the Pakistani side said that on Saturday, December 13, an Indian plane violated the air border and went 2-4 kilometers deep into the Pakistani part of Kashmir, and then also flew near the city of Lahore.