French police announced the arrest of 45 people related to arms smuggling, reports the French publication 20 minutes. Arrests were made in France and abroad on December 2. According to police, 38 people have already been formally placed under arrest, notes Agence France-Presse . The criminal group, which included the detainees, has been smuggling weapons since 2009.

Bank Smolensky, which was deprived of its Russian credit rating at the end of last week, asked for help from the Central Bank. The fact that the management of the financial institution sent a corresponding letter to the Chairman of the Central Bank, Elvira Nabiullina, is reported on the website of the Smolensk Bank. The amount of the stabilization loan that Smolensk Bank would like to receive is not given in the letter.

Singer Robbie Williams paid £17.5 million (almost $29 million) for a 46-room house in London. about this . writes The Daily Mail A three-story mansion called Woodland House is located in the Holland Park area in the west of the British capital. In addition to several dozen bedrooms and bathrooms, it has an ornate dining room, a cinema room and a swimming pool. The former owner of the building was director Michael Winner, who died in this house in January 2013.

The administrative centers of three western Ukrainian regions - Lviv, Ternopil and Ivano-Frankivsk - supported the opposition's calls for a strike. This is reported by Comments . In Ternopil, in particular, the corresponding decision was made at an extraordinary session of the City Council held on December 1.

The Department of the Investigative Committee for Tatarstan is conducting an investigation in connection with the publication of a video message on the Internet by the so-called “Emir of Tatarstan Abdullah.” agency reported this on December 2 The Interfax . Senior assistant to the head of the department, Andrei Sheptytsky, told reporters that based on the results of the pre-investigation check, a decision will be made to initiate a criminal case or to refuse to initiate it.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been accused of excessive spending on the maintenance of his residences, since in 2012 spending was almost a third higher than the planned amount. Arutz Sheva reported this on December 2. According to a document provided at the request of the media, a total of 3.1 million shekels ($910 thousand) were spent in 2012 on the maintenance of the official residence of the prime minister in Jerusalem, as well as his private home in Caesarea.

The Union of Non-Citizens has been created in Estonia, NewsBalt reports. It was headed by documentary filmmaker Oleg Besedin, the author of such films as “Breakthrough” (about the passage of ships of the Baltic Fleet through the Gulf of Finland in August 1941) and “The Hidden History of the Baltic States” (about nationalism in the countries of the region). The organization, as its leader said, will operate jointly with a similar association in Latvia (the Congress of Non-Citizens).

Russian Railways' pension funds surpassed Gazprom's pension fund Gazfond in terms of the volume of funds raised. This is evidenced by data from the Central Bank. By October, three non-state pension funds controlled by Russian Railways - Blagosostoyanie, KIT Finance and Aviva - had accumulated over 370 billion rubles. By this time, Gazfond had 365.9 billion rubles.

Demonstrators and Berkut fighters near the presidential administration building on December 1, 2013. Photo: Gleb Garanich / Reuters Ukraine recalls Bogdan Yaremenko from the post of Consul General in Istanbul. Yaremenko himself announced this on Facebook , referring to a letter received from the head of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic Leonid Kozhara. “Your business trip abroad as Consul General of Ukraine in Istanbul is completed,” the letter says.

Geologists have built a new computer model of the ocean of the Jovian satellite Europa, which helps explain the emergence of the so-called chaos regions - regions with a chaotic landscape. The researchers' paper appeared in the journal Nature Geoscience . As part of the study, scientists simulated convection in a thin rotating spherical shell. The model was calibrated using data collected by the Galileo spacecraft from 1995 to 2003.

In Hamburg, defenders of African refugees bombarded the house of the city's mayor, Olaf Scholz, with spray paint, writes the local newspaper Hamburger Abendblatt. The police have still not been able to identify the perpetrators. The incident occurred on the evening of December 1 after the dispersal of a demonstration at a Christmas market in the Altona area, where the mayor lives. About 50 people gathered in Altona Square to defend the right of refugees from Libya to stay in Hamburg.

In November, three companies at once released so-called “green bonds” to the market - securities, the proceeds of which are used to invest in renewable energy. As Reuters reports , demand for “green bonds” has been very significant, and in terms of rates they are not much different from conventional bonds. Green securities were released to the market by French energy group EDF, Swedish real estate company Group Vasakronan and Bank of America Merill Lynch.

The Vladivostok hockey club "Admiral" announced on its official website that the team's head coach, Hannu Jortikki, is leaving for family reasons. The agreement between the parties is terminated by mutual consent. In the next match of the KHL regular championship with Spartak Moscow, Alexander Selivanov, who worked as Jortikki’s assistant, will lead Admiral. It is not known who will coach the team after the game with Spartak.

The media suspected Lindsay Lohan of wanting to sue the publishing house Rockstar. TMZ reports that the actress has begun consulting with her lawyers on this matter. According to him, the reason for the impending litigation was that Lohan discovered a character in Grand Theft Auto V for whom, in her opinion, her image was used.

Before the Russian presidential elections in 2018, the authorities will sharply reduce mortgage rates, which will trigger economic growth and allow Vladimir Putin to increase his popularity. As writes , this opinion was expressed by the chief strategist of Renaissance Capital, Charles Robertson.