Sweets and various sweets are the most popular gift for Russians for the New Year. Almost a quarter of the respondents (23%) reported that they would give their friends and relatives just such a gift. This is evidenced by the survey conducted by sociologists of the Romir Monitoring research company. The study was attended by 1,500 residents of Russia, Interfax reports. According to 15% of respondents, some trinket, "presented with the soul", 13% give preference to perfumes and cosmetics.

The sentence to Yuri Budanov will be announced on December 31 at 15:00 Moscow time. This was announced today by the chairman of the North Caucasus District Military Court Viktor Kostin. Today, in court, the debate of the parties took place, reports ITAR-TASS. Budanov’s lawyers consider his actions to be lawful when the detainment of Elsa Kungaeva.

Dozens of students decided to teach the administration of the elementary school of the city Netivot for the fact that, in their opinion, the administration treated them severely. Pupils practically destroyed the administrative part of the building. According to the Maariv newspaper, the damage caused is estimated at tens of thousands of shekels (1 dollar = 4.77 shekels).

The auxiliary worker stole more than 1 million rubles, hiding in a refrigerator, the sources in the Central Internal Affairs Directorate of the capital told Interfax. This happened on the night of December 25 at warehouse N9 AOZT "New Cherries". A utility worker, an visiting from Uzbekistan, stole 1 million 280 thousand rubles from the cash register and a radiotelephone from the cash register. On December 27, he was detained. "He is completely exposed in his deed.

Los Angeles Lakers played out at the end of the year: on Sunday, the current champion of the National Basketball Association at home defeated Toronto Raptorz with a score of 104: 88. The main creator of the victory of the champions was the central shakil O'Neill, who sketched 35 points into the opponent’s basket and made 10 rebounds. Another Lakers leader Kobi Bryant limited himself to 13 points, which is a rather low indicator for him.

On New Year's Eve, in the large hall of the Conservatory, the Pavel Kogan Orchestra and the Big Band of Igor Butman will present a new “Nutcracker” - New Year's jazz fantasy on the Tchaikovsky theme. The Symphojaz concert will be attended by the Moscow State Academic Orchestra under the direction of Pavel Kogan and the jazz team of Igor Butman, Interfax reports.

On Monday, the Swedish police shot a drunken moose, which had crossed the throws of apples and after that attacked a little boy, the AFTONBLADET Swedish newspaper reports. The moose attacked an eight -year -old boy when he played in the garden of his house in one of the cities of Central Sweden. The elk with horns threw the boy above the ground, damaging his neck, but did not cause him other serious injuries, reports Reuters.

In the Sofia court of the Belokamenny Kremlin, students of the Tobolsk Theological Seminary began the construction of a snow cave, inside of which the best pupils of the local icon -painting school will create sculptures of the Virgin Mary and the baby Jesus, RIA Novosti reports. The opening of the "Ice Vertep" will take place on the eve of the Christmas holiday.

The company "Unicon/MS Consulting Group" was chosen by the main auditor of the Bank of Russia for 2002. Such a decision was made at a meeting of the National Banking Council under the chairmanship of Alexei Kudrin on December 30, the Department of External and Public Relations of the Central Bank of the Russian Federation reports.

In Yemen, an armed militant killed three American doctors. Also in the shootout the hospital was wounded. The fact of the murder of doctors and the fact that they are US citizens confirmed the US Embassy. The incident occurred in the missionary hospital of Djibl in the south of the country. According to Reuters, who shot, most likely, is associated with a radical Islamist group. Eyewitnesses report that the attacker entered the hospital, introducing himself as a relative of one of the patients.

The regulation of the match of Russian Harry Kasparov with the computer program "Deep Junior" in January-February 2003 in New York will be similar to the previous fight "Man-Machine"-between Vladimir Kramnik and Deep Fritz. This was reported today in London informed sources, according to which we are talking about classic chess, with a three -minute interval for thinking. However, according to them, the details have not yet been defined exactly.

In the process in the case of Yuri Budanov, accused of the murder of the Chechen girl, Elsa Kungaeva, on Monday will continue the debate of the parties. "Today, the lawyers of Colonel Budanov will perform. Their position is somewhat different from the position of the state prosecutor and the protection of the injured side," a source in the North Caucasus District Court said.

The secret archives of the Holy See related to relations with Hitler Germany will become available to researchers from February 15, 2003, ITAR-TASS reports. This is stated in the Vatican Press Service on the Print Service on the eve. Its leader Hoackin Navarro Waltz called this decision to the "New Year's gift" of the papal administration to historians.

Five charges of powerful explosives were discovered by the French police in a car of one of the employees of the luggage department of the Paris Airport Ruassi named after Charles de Gaulle. In the car’s car, five plastic briquettes, two detonators, a gun and an automatic machine were found. The suspect was detained by the employees of the border police on Saturday evening, when he approached his car.

In Kamchatka, the damage caused by the Typhoon "Lozhbin", raging over the peninsula on November 11-12, is finally calculated. On Monday, relevant documents were sent to Moscow, RIA Novosti was told in the press service of the Kamchatka Region Administration. It is noted that the repair of torn roofs, flooded residential and household premises, the restoration of destroyed communications requires investing more than 240 million rubles.