The Iraqi army took control of a complex of government buildings in the center of the city of Ramadi, located about 100 kilometers from Baghdad. Ramadi was recaptured from the Islamic State militants (an organization recognized as a terrorist organization in Russia and banned) after fighting that lasted about a week. The Iraqi government army carried out the operation with the support of American aircraft.

What alternative energy sources already exist Photo: George Chan / Getty images In early December 2015, the first tests of the German Wendelstein 7-X reactor were successfully held, which is able to provide the city’s energy due to thermonuclear synthesis, without the use of oil. In Europe and America, active work has been underway for many years to invent alternative energy sources. At the request of Medusa, Vladislav Voronin found out what he had already achieved.

The militants of one of the Afghan armed formations beheaded four militants of the "Islamic State" (the organization is recognized as a terrorist organization in Russia and banned). The heads of the dead were laid on piles of stones along the road in the Achin district in Nangarhar province in eastern Afghanistan, near the Pakistani border. The group that cracked down on the Islamic State militants is controlled by the Vice Speaker of the Afghan Parliament, Zahir Qadir.

A patrol of the OSCE observation mission came under fire near the village of Kominternovo, Donetsk region. The representative of the mission said that the fire was from small arms. None of the observers were hurt, their cars were not damaged. Who exactly and from what positions fired, is unknown. The shelling in the Kominternovo area was also reported by the representative of the DPR, Eduard Basurin. According to him, he was with the OSCE observers.

Mikhail Bryzgalov, Director of the Cultural Heritage Department of the Ministry of Culture of Russia, resigned. This was reported by the Interfax agency, citing a source close to the leadership of the ministry. According to the source, Bryzgalov wrote a letter of resignation of his own free will, the order of dismissal was signed by the minister. Bryzgalov did not comment on this matter.

Russian citizen Alexei Burkov was arrested in Israel on charges of hacking computer databases. Ruslan Kandaurov, head of the consular department of the Russian embassy in Israel, told Interfax about this. The arrest was made at the request of the US authorities. On December 27, court hearings were held on the extradition of the accused, but no decision was made on his extradition. According to Kandaurov, the next court session is scheduled for January 21.

Photo: Evgeny Kurskov / TASS / Scanpix "Medusa" continues to study the heroes of news in the headlines of the media. Following the Siberian man and the unemployed Muscovite, Santa Claus, the main symbol of the New Year, fell into our view. What was the generalized Santa Claus in recent years in Russia, Ukraine, Belarus and other parts of the Earth? Santa Claus is a cheerful hero, but he gets fun at a high price: he drinks.

China passed a law formally abolishing the birth control policy known as the "one family, one child" policy. This is reported by the official Chinese news agency Xinhua. The law will come into force on January 1, 2016. All couples in China will be allowed to have two children. The decision to abandon the policy of "one family - one child" was first announced by the Chinese leadership in October 2015. The population of China is over 1.3 billion people.

11 tornadoes swept across northern Texas, killing at least eight people. Five people were killed when several cars were blown off an overpass onto cars passing on the road below. In the city of Rowlett near Dallas, three houses were destroyed. Nothing is known about the fate of the people who lived there. Due to the tornado, power supply was disrupted in some areas. About 50 thousand people were left without electricity. Tornadoes have continued in the US over the past few days.

China passed the first anti-terrorism law. According to news agency, it is aimed at preventing terrorist attacks inside China and ensuring international security. the official Xinhua The law obliges telecommunications companies to store the personal data of Chinese users in China, as well as to transfer encryption keys to government agencies and censor content. In preparing the law, he was criticized by representatives of business, as well as the American administration.

In Ajaccio, the largest city of Corsica, marches were held against immigrants. They took place in response to an attack on firefighters and policemen, which was committed on Christmas night in the suburbs of Ajaccio. The attack was attended by about 20 people in hoods, with iron bars and baseball bats in their hands.

The Finnish Border Guard has forbidden to cross the border with Russia on a bicycle. According to the Finnish TV channel MTV, now the checkpoints can only be bypassed by car. The restrictions apply to the two northern checkpoints of Salla and Raya-Jooseppi. Since the border cannot be crossed on foot, many migrants used bicycles to get to Finland. The border service explained the new ban by the fact that in winter this method of movement poses a threat to road safety.

Interview of the former chairman of the ROC in the interaction of the Church and the Society of Vsevolod Chaplin Photo: Ilya Talev / RIA Novosti / Scanpix One of the most famous figures of the Russian Orthodox Church is the chairman of the Synodal Department for the interaction of the Church and Society Archpriest Vsevolod Chaplin was dismissed.

Austrian police said a "friendly intelligence service" had broadcast a warning about the threat of terrorist attacks in European capitals before the New Year. According to the police statement, in connection with the possible preparation of terrorist attacks, the names of several people were named - they were checked, but these checks did not give a concrete result. The police asked the Austrians to be sympathetic to the need for additional security measures (eng. lang.).

NATO will send several AWACS aircraft to Turkey. They will be temporarily transferred from Germany to an air base in the Turkish city of Konya. The task of the crews is to ensure the protection of Turkish airspace and prevent new incidents like the attack of Turkish fighters on the Russian Su-24 bomber. A spokesman for the German Defense Ministry said the operation was still in the planning stages and declined to provide details.