Information about the preparation of terrorist attacks in St. Petersburg came from the US Central Intelligence Agency. This was reported in the press service of the Kremlin on December 17. President Vladimir Putin called his counterpart Donald Trump to thank him for the information.

The defender of the football club "AZ Alkmaar" Pantelis Hatzidiakos in the match with "Ajax" twice took the ball out of an empty net. In the 15th minute, Ajax succeeded in attacking, which AZ goalkeeper Marco Bizot tried to interrupt. He went out of the gate, but was beaten. Here's how it was: Despite all the efforts of Hatzidiakos, AZ Alkmaar still lost the match (1:2).

One of the contenders for the privatization of the Crimean factory of champagne wines "New World" was LLC "Southern Project" - a subsidiary of the bank "Russia" billionaire Yuri Kovalchuk. RBC writes about this with reference to the tender documentation. The only rival of the "Southern Project" was the company "Voom-Voh Invest". It is registered as a micro-enterprise (with up to 15 employees) in the same premises as several dozen other companies.

Supporters of the former governor of the Odessa region, Mikheil Saakashvili, tried to storm the October Palace, a theater hall in the center of Kyiv. This was done after Saakashvili called for a "coordinating headquarters" of his movement to be set up there. At that moment, according to the police, a children's party was taking place in the palace. The building was surrounded by police officers.

The body of King Victor Emmanuel III, the penultimate Italian monarch, who died in exile, was delivered to Italy. The body was taken from Egyptian Alexandria to the Italian commune of Vicoforte, where the king will be buried in the family crypt. Earlier, the body of the wife of King Elena of Montenegro was delivered to Vicofort. The king's grandson, Victor Emmanuel of Savoy, said he opposed the choice of a burial site.

For the first time, Russian prosecutors have asked a court for a life sentence in a drug trafficking case. The official representative of the department, Alexander Kurennoy, spoke about this in the video blog of the Prosecutor General’s Office. We are talking about a case against 15 citizens of Tajikistan, in which Sherali Tabarov is the main accused. According to investigators, the group imported a total of 600 kilograms of heroin into Russia from 2012 to 2015.

Who are Orthodox psychologists and how they help believers Sonya Korshenboym for "Medusa" In 2016, more than one hundred thousand people with depression were registered in Russia - this is about 0.07% of all Russians .

Film director Georgy Natanson died in Moscow. According to his daughter Marina Luzgina, Natanson died at home at the age of 97. The date of farewell and funeral director will be announced later. Georgy Natanson was born in Kazan in 1921. He graduated from the directing department of VGIK, after which he got a job at Mosfilm. His first work, the cartoon "Heavenly creature" (1956) was awarded the Grand Prix of the Venice Film Festival.

Mario Lemieux's penta-trick between the Pittsburgh Penguins and the New Jersey Devils has been voted by fans as the greatest moment in NHL history. On December 31, 1988, the Canadian striker managed to score five goals in different game situations: in equality, in the implementation of the majority for the removal of the opponent, in the minority (4 to 5), shootout (free throw) and into an empty net. No one has ever been able to replicate this achievement.

US Department of Defense The US Department of Defense first spoke about the program for the study of unidentified flying objects, which was carried out recently-from 2007 to 2012. Whether it was possible to find confirmation of the existence of extraterrestrial life is unknown, but the published videos captured objects that behave inexplicable. The “Expanded Air Forces Program program” was held from at least 2007 to 2012.

Alex Bailey / Netflix "Crown" In December, the TV channels are not expected to be very many serial premieres, therefore, the Internet services of Amazon and Netflix come to the rescue: with a fantastic Gothic ballad from Germany, self-irony jean of Cloud Van Damme, Queen Elizabeth II, a “black mirror” and Will Smith, surrounded by elves, orcs and goblins. Film critic Yegor Moskvitin talks about the main television officers of December.

Your Browser Does Not Support the Audio Element. Total Putinization: how in Poland they fight against communism, migrants and freedom of the media Over the past two years, Poland has turned into one of the most conservative countries in Europe: they opposed the reception of refugees from the Middle East, seek to completely ban abortion, limit the freedom of the media and rewrite the modern history of the country.

The International Olympic Committee has developed requirements for the equipment of Russian athletes at the Olympic Games in Pyeongchang in 2018. The content of the document was published by R-Sport. On the uniforms of the athletes, the coat of arms should be replaced by the Olympic rings, and the name of the country (Russia) should be changed to “Olympic Athlete from Russia” (Olympic Athlete from Russia). Moreover, the word Russia cannot be highlighted in a larger font.

Shutterstock.com In the December issue of The New Yorker, the story of the young writer Kristen Rupenian Cat Person (“Koshamnik”) was published. He is dedicated to how the correspondence flirting led to an unsuccessful date and ended with poor sex. The story has become one of the most popular materials of the magazine for the whole of 2017-including because men and women perceive it in completely different ways.

In the Irkutsk private zoo, the escape of two turtles was prevented twice in one day. The incident was reported on December 14 in the public page of the "Irkutsk Zoo Gallery". First, a pair of spurred tortoises named Shrek and Fiona broke the glass of their enclosure (they did it with their shells and didn't cut themselves). One of the zoo's owners, Vadim Ivushkin, had to sit on a tortoise (apparently Shrek) to hold it down.