The president of the Ukrainian football club Shakhtar Rinat Akhmetov said that he himself will coach the team in the absence of head coach Mircea Lucescu, the club's official website reports. On January 6, Lucescu was involved in a car accident in Bucharest and is currently in hospital in the Romanian capital.

The Syrian army provides weapons and ammunition to the rebels. The fighters themselves against the regime of President Bashar al-Assad spoke about this in an interview with Al-Jazeera TV channel. According to the rebels, who include a significant number of deserters, they have no problems with supplies, since they are constantly helped by both civilians and former colleagues. The number of rebels, according to Al-Jazeera estimates, can reach 25 thousand people and is constantly increasing.

The leader of the opposition Kazakh Azat party, Bolat Abilov, accused police from Zhanaozen (a city in the southwest of the country where unrest recently occurred) of stealing mobile phones from local residents. According to Novosti-Kazakhstan, he made such accusations at a press conference in Almaty. “An investigation is underway - seven police officers have been arrested for taking cell phones and some funds from residents of Zhanaozen,” the oppositionist said.

Six Russian women were among the seeded tennis players at the Australian Open, the first Grand Slam tournament of the season. Maria Sharapova became the fourth racket of the competition, Vera Zvonareva - seventh, Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova - 16th, Svetlana Kuznetsova - 19th, Maria Kirilenko - 28th, Nadezhda Petrova - 30th, the official website of the Australian Open reports.

On Monday, January 9, the euro exchange rate fell below $1.27 during trading in Asia. As reported by Agence France-Presse , the depreciation of the European currency occurs against the backdrop of fears that the eurozone debt crisis is dragging on, as well as against the backdrop of positive statistics from the United States. During the first half of the day, the value of the European currency dropped to $1.2665.

The President of Guinea-Bissau, Malam Bakay Sagna, died in Paris at the age of 64, reports Agence France-Presse . Death occurred as a result of a long illness. A French government spokesman told the agency that Sagna died in the Val-de-Grâce military hospital, where he had been staying since the end of December 2011. The nature of his illness is not specified, but it is known that Sanya was in a coma for the last days before his death. According to BBC News, Sanya had diabetes.

In the Khuloi region of Adjara, a minibus taxi flew off the road and fell into an abyss, Trend reports. The accident, according to GHN, occurred on the Batumi-Akhaltsikhe highway. There were nine passengers in the cabin. Two passengers died on the spot. Others were injured. Four passengers were hospitalized with multiple fractures. The costs of treatment were covered by local authorities. The cause of the accident has not yet been established.

Belarusian oppositionist Dmitry Bondarenko, convicted in the case of anti-presidential protests in 2010, was denied parole. "Charter'97" writes about this. As Bondarenko himself said by telephone from the colony, the corresponding decision was made on January 4 by the parole commission. The oppositionist was refused with the wording “until the degree of certification changes.” "Charter'97" notes that one of the conditions for certification of a prisoner is an admission of guilt.

A Malaysian court has found opposition politician Anwar Ibrahim not guilty of sodomy. reported this on January 9 The Associated Press . The trial of Ibrahim continued from mid-2008. The prosecution was based on the testimony of the politician’s alleged sexual victim, a 26-year-old employee of his party’s headquarters, as well as on his DNA analysis. The final conclusion of the court noted that the evidence collected could not be fully credible.

In Samara, three members of the investigation team were injured in an explosion. agency reported this on January 9 ITAR-TASS , citing a source in law enforcement agencies. On the night of January 9, a man’s body was found in a Volkswagen parked on Moskovskaya Street. Investigators arrived at the scene (they work for the Ministry of Internal Affairs or the Investigative Committee, it is not specified). When they turned the body over, the bomb went off. The victims were hospitalized.

In Belarus, fundraising has been completed in support of the convicted head of the human rights center "Vesna" Ales Byalyatsky, Interfax-Zapad reports. This campaign was organized a month ago by his colleagues in order to collect the amount that Byalyatsky, in accordance with the verdict, must pay as compensation. According to the court decision, the head of Viasna must compensate for the “damage caused to the state” and also pay a state fee.

The Yemeni government has approved a bill according to which the country's ex-president Ali Abdullah Saleh receives immunity and is not subject to prosecution, Al Jazeera reports. Judicial immunity also applies to all officials who worked in government during the years when Saleh ruled the country. A bill approved by the government must be approved by parliament, but this procedure is considered formal.

In the city of Nikolaevsk-on-Amur, Khabarovsk Territory, the case of a local resident who extracted silver from film was brought to court. This was reported on the website of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation on January 9. According to investigators, a large amount of film came into the man’s possession after the liquidation of the film library of the city film enterprise. The film contained silver nitrate (silver nitrate).

Negotiator Alexei Kudrin acted as a mediator between the government and the opposition Since his resignation as Finance Minister, Alexei Kudrin, always considered Vladimir Putin's friend and right-hand man, has begun to behave more and more like an opposition politician. He spoke at a public rally on Academician Sakharov Avenue, started Twitter, a personal website and a blog on the Echo of Moscow website, and regularly gives interviews to independent media.

The information obtained by hackers as a result of breaking into the servers of the private intelligence company Stratfor revealed the data of several hundred American and British officials. The discovery was reported by The Guardian, which commissioned the study. Among the data of 850 thousand people that were freely available were the email addresses of former US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger and former Vice President of the country Dan Quayle.