The outgoing 2006 became the time of strengthening the positions of the Russian Orthodox Church in Russian society, according to the Moscow Patriarchate.

In the name of the Presentation of the Lord, they plan to build a house church on the operated roof of the Moscow Theater "School of Dramatic Art". According to RIA Novosti in the city administration, in accordance with the order signed by Moscow Mayor Yuri Luzhkov, the house church on the roof of the theater is planned to be built before the end of 2008.

In Israel, an investigation on the murder of a 13-year-old schoolgirl Tair Rada continues, who is accused of a 29-year-old native of the CIS Roman Zadorov. On Friday, during the hearing, Roman Zadorov said that he was innocent. “I ask you to take into account that everyone that is accused of is not true. This girl did not ask me for a cigarette and I didn’t do anything like that. I didn’t kill her, and confessed to the investigative experiment because they had pressure on me,” the accused said.

Former participant in the legendary quarter of The Beatles Paul McCartney complicated his own divorce proceedings, taking from his wife Hiser Mills in the suburban estate, paintings by Picasso and Renoir worth about $ 19 million, Interfax reports with reference to The Sun British newspaper.

Latvia agreed to a significant increase in prices for Russian gas, RIA Novosti reports text . The board of the Latvian gas monopolist Latvijas Gaze approved the purchase prices for Russian gas for 2007 - 210-260 dollars per thousand cubic meters. In 2006, Latvia purchased blue fuel at 130-145 dollars. On Friday December 29, the Board of the Latvian gas company Latvijas Gaze at the meeting approved a significant increase in prices, they will increase by 60-80%.

The ratio of Republicans and Democrats in the US Senate may be equal. According to the AR agency, the Senator-Democrat from the South Dakota Tim Johnson, who underwent a difficult operation on the brain, continues to be in critical condition. However, the state of Johnson, according to the latest data, is improving. As Reuters reports with reference to the neurosurgeon of Vivek Dashmukha, the politician is already moving away from anesthesia, opens his eyes and talks to his wife.

On Friday December 29, at 15:00 Moscow time, the Belarusian delegation, led by the First Deputy Minister of Energy of Belarus Eduard Tovpenets, flew to Moscow to sign a gas contract with Russia. According to the Belarusian Prime Minister Sergei Sidorsky, "an agreement was reached on the cost of gas for Belarus $ 75 per thousand cubic meters." It is not known whether it is a full price or only the part that Minsk agrees to pay with money.

In the American state of Alabam, women are not allowed to appear naked in public places, and therefore the strip clubs decided to go on a trick. They covered the nudity of the stripper with the thinnest frank bikini from latex. This is written by the German edition of Die Welt . The publication writes that on top of miniature tango, stripteers in the American state of Alabam are now put on the finest latex bikini.

21-year-old German Tobias Gut was going to go to Christmas to Australia to his lover, 19-year-old Laura. However, when booking a ticket via the Internet, he made an annoying mistake: instead of the word Sydney, confusing one letter, introduced Sidney. Due to inattentiveness, the young man was on a completely different continent, thousands of kilometers from his beloved and at a temperature of 30 degrees below the expected, reports factnews with reference to Bild .

The American military in Iraq on Friday released two Iranian diplomats previously detained by them, ITAR-TASS reports with reference to Iranian television. The Iranians were detained on suspicion of supplying weapons in Iraq to "illegal groups." Information about their release has not yet been confirmed by the US forces command in Iraq.

The lawyers of the head of the MFI Menatep Platon Lebedev announced the withdrawal from participation in the case of their client of the entire investigative brigade, the statement posted on the website of the press center Mikhail Khodorkovsky said. "As we became aware, at present, the senior investigator for particularly important cases of Karimov has again accepted the criminal case No. 18/41-03.

In Arizona on Friday, the former worldwater champion Mike Tyson was detained. The police detained the athlete for driving a car intoxicated and storage of cocaine. Soon, according to AP with reference to the statement of the American police, Tyson was released without a collateral. In court, Tyson recognized the fact of drug use and stated that he regularly takes narcotic substances. In addition, the boxer said that he owned a certain amount of cocaine.

In the city of Sumgait, located 30 km north of Baku, an explosion occurred at a synthetic rubber factory on Friday in the evening, as a result of which two people died and five were injured of varying severity. The explosion occurred at the Butadiene production site. The preliminary cause of the explosion is a gas leak, a gas installation with a height of 72 meters exploded, Interfax reports with reference to ANS. As a result of the explosion, a fire began.

According to Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili, in the coming year warming in relations between Tbilisi and Moscow is not expected. Such was the main resume in the speech of the Georgian leader on the eve of the New Year holidays, in which he failed the balance of Georgian-Abkhaz relations, writes "Independent Gazeta" .

Moscow Mayor Yuri Luzhkov hopes that real estate prices will not rise in 2007. “I think that prices will not rise further. Did you notice that they stopped at the same time that oil prices stopped? This is not happening by chance, since oil prices these days are largely the regulator of supply and demand,” he said in an interview. ” Rossiyskaya Gazeta " . - If there is less money, then prices moderate their ardor.