Steven Spielberg's historical drama "Lincoln" became the leader in the number of nominations for the Golden Globe Award. The film is up for seven awards, reports Reuters . Ben Affleck's Argo and Quentin Tarantino's Django Unchained are up for five awards each. Films by Spielberg, Affleck and Tarantino are nominated for Best Drama. Their competitors in this category are Ang Lee's Life of Pi and Kathryn Bigelow's Zero Dark Thirty.

In 2012, the number of persons under investigation and defendants who were left under house arrest instead of being sent to a pre-trial detention center increased more than 10 times. Rossiyskaya Gazeta writes about this on December 13 with reference to the Federal Penitentiary Service (FSIN). According to the Judicial Department of the Supreme Court of Russia, for the entire 2011, only 181 people were put under house arrest, and in the period from January to December 2012 - 1,990 people.

Dell will no longer produce smartphones. The company's vice president, Jeff Clarke, spoke about this at the Dell World conference, which was held in Texas from December 11 to 13, writes Computerworld UK. Instead of smartphones, Dell will focus on producing tablets and touchscreen computers running Windows 8. That operating system is already used in the company's Latitude tablets and XPS laptops.

On December 13, Russian President Vladimir Putin took part in the farewell ceremony for singer Galina Vishnevskaya, which takes place at the Opera Singing Center named after her on Ostozhenka. The head of state laid flowers at the coffin, expressed personal condolences to the singer's daughter Olga Rostropovich and left the building, Interfax reports . Vishnevskaya died on December 11 at the age of 87. The farewell ceremony will last until 20:00.

Moscow will allocate about two billion rubles for the restoration of Derbent, which was damaged by floods. this on December 13. As reported by the Interfax agency , Alexander Khloponin, the presidential envoy to the North Caucasus Federal District, stated The money allocated from the federal budget will be used to repair the city’s infrastructure, restore the damaged areas and build new housing. These funds will also be used to build structures that will protect Derbent from other floods.

The kidnappers of Ukrainian journalist Ankhar Kochneva, who allegedly collaborated with Russian intelligence services, recorded a video with threats against citizens of Ukraine, Russia and Iran. Exclusive footage was at the disposal of the Ukraine channel. “The Ukrainian Embassy, ​​the Russian Embassy, ​​citizens of these countries, as well as Iranians will now be prey and targets for all our forces. We call not to release any Ukrainian, Russian or Iranian alive from Syria.

The Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation decided that changes need to be made to federal and regional laws that would make it possible to separate public worship services that pose a public danger from those that do not pose such a danger. The corresponding decision was published on the court’s website (document No. 30-P/2012). The court ruled that public worship, harmless to society, can be held in non-religious premises without approval from the authorities.

A world without a master America may lose its title of superpower The US National Intelligence Council (NIC) has prepared a report on international development until 2030. One of the main conclusions that the researchers came to is this: America is about to lose its status as a superpower capable of single-handedly influencing global processes.

The first stage of the special economic zone (SEZ) "Titanium Valley" in the city of Verkhnyaya Salda, Sverdlovsk region, will receive 7.67 billion rubles from the Russian budget. This was stated by the General Director of the Titanium Valley management company Artemy Kyzlasov, RIA Novosti reports . According to Kyzlasov, on December 13, the Ministry of Economic Development held a meeting at which the department and the management company agreed on the volume and procedure of budget financing.

On December 10, an armed clash occurred between Tajik state security officers and Afghan smugglers on the Tajik-Afghan border. Asia-Plus reports this. As a result, according to Avesta, several bandits were wounded and fled to Afghanistan. At the scene of the collision, 176 kilograms of hashish and one foreign-made carbine were found. It is not specified whether there were any casualties from the Tajik security forces.

Retailer "Magnit" will create its own perfume trading network, which will compete with companies such as "L'Etoile" and "Rive Gauche". The newspaper "RBC daily" writes about this with reference to sources in "Magnit". According to the publication, the retailer submitted an application to Rospatent to register the Rouge brand (translated from French as “red”). The first Rouge store opened in November at the Magnit supermarket in Krasnodar. Rouge will operate in the high price segment.

Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin submitted to the Moscow City Duma a bill to create analogues of London's Hyde Park in the capital. The text of the document is available on the website of the legislative body. In accordance with it, a new concept is introduced into the law regulating the holding of actions in Moscow - “specially designated places”. In these places, it will be possible to hold actions without submitting a notification to the executive authorities.

Since the beginning of 2012, the troops of the Eastern Military District have received more than 30 new helicopters, including Ka-52 attack helicopters, Mi-8AMTSh transport and assault helicopters and Mi-26 heavy transport helicopters. This as reported by RIA Novosti .

Valery Karpin left the post of general director of the Moscow football club Spartak. This was stated by club president Leonid Fedun, according to the official website of Spartak. Karpin resigned from the post of general director, since it cannot be combined with the post of head coach of the team, which will be occupied by a 43-year-old specialist. Karpin signed a contract with Spartak for a year and a half, that is, until the end of the 2013/14 season.

The NORAD Tracks Santa service, which tracks Santa Claus' movements around the planet, has replaced Google Maps with the Microsoft-owned Bing Maps service. SearchEngineLand reports this. 2D Google maps and the 3D Google Earth application have been used by the service for four years, since 2007.