In Finland, all records are broken by the number of letters sent annually on Christmas to the Finnish Santa Claus. According to the "Christmas office", in 2006 to the Northern Polar Circle in the name of the Finnish Santa Claus, or Yuolupukki, about 700 thousand letters came, RIA Novosti reports. Letters that come from all over the world to Lapland are delivered to the mountain Korvatunturi, where Yuulupukki has been living since 1927.

The Federal Registration Service of the Russian Federation (paintings) is ready to meet religious organizations of the country, which are concerned about the new reporting procedure, which involves, among other things, the accounting of the number of parishioners.

On the 7th km of the Dmitrovsky highway in the suburbs, an admiral hotel complex took place. A three -deck ship was covered by fire, moored to the shore of the Klyazminsky reservoir and used as a hotel complex with an entertainment center. The fire occurs near the city of Dolgoprudny. The signal of the fire arrived at 22:13. According to MSC, more than a hundred people were evacuated from a burning ship, there are no information about the victims yet.

The period of reduction of retail prices for gasoline has ended, writes "Independent Gazeta" . From December 4 to 10, prices for the first time in November, December rose - on average in the country by 0.1%. At the same time, the rise in price of gasoline occurs despite the fact that oil prices range in the region of $ 62–63 per barrel, which is $ 15 lower than in July, when gasoline was cheaper.

At a meeting of the Federation Council on Friday, a report of the parliamentary commission for investigating the circumstances of the attack in Beslan was published. The report was made by the chairman of the commission, the vice speaker of the SF Alexander Torshin. The preliminary version of this volumetric report was announced a year ago. Since then, the commission has completed it by a number of clarifying facts.

The head of the Department of External Church Relations of the Moscow Patriarchate (MPC MP), Metropolitan of Smolensk and Kaliningrad Kirill (Gundyaev), believes that the Orthodox Church can ensure stability and prosperity to the state in modern Russia, as it was under Konstantin the Great in the Byzantine Empire. “After all, we also entered the Konstantin era today.

New Year and Christmas holidays are not only joyful communication with relatives and friends, funny feasts and gifts, but also stress. This conclusion was reached in the American Association of Psychologists. Moreover, according to psychologists, women are more affected by “festive stress”. In Russia, the situation is even worse. Most Russians do not have the opportunity to relax in richly for long holidays, so that since the old year, stress goes into a new one.

Representatives of the Turkmen opposition, who are hoping to return to the country in connection with the death of President Turkmenistan Saparmurat Niyazov, has not yet succeeded. This was announced on Friday by Batyr Mukhamedshin, who called himself a representative of the United Turkmen opposition and the Minister of Justice of the "shadow cabinet". “The main question is the return of the opposition,” he said, noting that the Turkmen authorities are hindering this.

The Russian State Duma forbade to make donations to the Foundation of the RF referendum to non-profit organizations that received funds from abroad or from Russian firms with the participation of more than 30% of foreign capital or Russian hospital. The deputies adopted such amendments to the Constitutional Law "On the Referendum of the Russian Federation" at a plenary meeting on Friday, Interfax reports.

In Japan, the festival of Russian culture-2006 ends. It has become the largest cultural event in the history of the interstate relations of Russia and Japan, the 50th anniversary of the normalization of which is celebrated this year. The festival of production of two Russian theaters is completed at once.

The weather in the capital is determined by the warm sector of the next Atlantic cyclone. According to the forecast provided in Roshydromet, on Friday in the afternoon in Moscow, the air warms up from zero to 2 degrees of heat, in the suburbs - from minus 2 to the pole of 3 degrees. Cloudy weather is expected to clear. Light snow will pass in places. The conditions for the formation of ice, ice and icicles are preserved. The wind is west, 3-8 meters per second.

According to observers, the scandal around the demolition of the houses of Kazakhstani Hinduists goes into the sphere of obvious absurdity.

In the American state of North Carolina, a trailer rolled up on the highway with a load of low -enriched uranium weighing about 3.3 tons. As RIA Novosti reports with reference to NBC, the accident occurred at 04:58 Moscow time, when the trailer turned to another road. The truck fell on its side, rescuers work at the scene of the accident, including specialists in combating toxic substances.

Eight American Marines on Thursday were charged with the murder of 24 peaceful Iraqi in the city of El Hadit in November 2005. This is the largest criminal case, initiated for the murder of peaceful Iraqi citizens with American soldiers. It is reported that four military personnel are accused of unintentional murder. Four more officers who were not present at the crime scene - in negligence in the investigation of murders and the reports of the death of civilians, ITAR -TASS reports.

At the huge Christmas spruce, 20 thousand lights lit in the Roman Square of St. Peter. A forest beauty 33 meters high and a weight of 9 tons was consecrated during the ceremony, headed by Archbishop Giovanni Layolo, the head of the Governor of the city-state of the Vatican . The religious and civilian authorities of Calabria took part in it - the region from which the spruce that grew up in the forests of the National Park of the National Park was delivered this year.