The crew of the Chinese fishing vessel Zhenhua 4, who attacked the pirates on December 17, threw sea robbers with empty beer bottles and Molotov cocktails. Preparing to repel the attack, the fishermen poured beer from 400 bottles overboard. The sailors pushed the pirate pirates with water from the hoses under high pressure. As reported, the Chinese fishing ship with 30 sailors on board was captured in the Gulf of Aden about 50 sea miles from the coast of Yemen.

In the United States, an inspection of the Air Force nuclear arsenals at the base in Wyoming had failed for the fifth time this year. The documentation was not in order, CNN reports with reference to official military sources. The report of the inspectors says that the results of tests carried out on missile installations and security devices were incorrectly documented.

The Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov demanded that Georgia resume gas supply to South Ossetia. The fact that Tbilisi is overlapping the republic of gas , coming from the territory of Russia, became known last weekend. “It is necessary to achieve the restoration of gas supplies to South Ossetia through the territory of Georgia,” the ITAR -TASS Foreign Minister quotes the statement. “We turned to the OSCE, but so far there is a bashful reaction to this question.

In the United States, at the age of 95, the chief informant died in the famous Watergate scandal of the 1970s, who cost the then President Richard Nixon. The former high-ranking FBI agent Mark Felt, who had been hiding behind the “deep sip” for many years, lived in his house in Santa Rosa (California) in recent years. His death was confirmed by The New York Times, his grandson Rob Jones.

In the Sverdlovsk region, the hunger strike of the workers of the Minerk enterprise began, which they warned about a week ago. The chief mechanic of the enterprise is already in the hospital, the regional television company "Channel 4" reports. After the conservation of a coal section in Aramashevo, several dozen employees do not receive a salary for six months. People cannot find another work, their families are forced to live in the starvation.

After a series of meetings with sectorals, the first deputy chairman of the government Igor Shuvalov summarized: the enterprise of the Russian Federation requested a credit resource in the amount of up to 3.5 trillion rubles - in addition to the existing loan portfolio, the Vedomosti writes.

The most beloved occupation during the New Year and Christmas holidays among Russians are to visit Russians. As the results of a survey of the All-Russian Center for the Study of Public Opinion (VTsIOM) published on Friday, almost half of Russia citizens prefer this pastime (45%), ITAR-TASS reports. In second place is nature walks (18 %). 13% of Russians intend to go with children for New Year's performances and Christmas trees.

A physical education lesson at a school in Magnitogorsk ended in a tragedy. According to REGNUM , after class, a student of comprehensive school No. 66 died of a brain hemorrhage. The deceased is 13 -year -old Vladislav Akhmedyanov. He died today, December 19, the news agency reports with reference to the Right -Bank Investigative Department of Magnitogorsk. The investigation group works at the school.

A large family refused to enter the cottage, built specifically for them as part of the social program, reports Newsmsk.com . Parents of five children do not suit the terms of the contract under which they cannot invite relatives to live, and in addition, they will have to leave as soon as the youngest child is 18 years old. The Tsyganov family lives in the parental two -room Khrushchev.

The head of the press service of the Holy See, Priest Federico Lombardi, criticized TF1 for the refusal of the traditional direct broadcast of the RIA Novosti session. The decision to replace the Vatican Mass in the broadcasting net with a concert of the popular singer Michel Sarda, recorded in 2005, adopted the leadership of the channel. It explained the replacement with a new approach to the formation of a broadcasting grid in the evening.

The criminal court of Morocco sentenced the country's citizen, found guilty of involvement in explosions of trains in Madrid in 2004. The accusation required Akhriz for the 31-year-old Abdilia life imprisonment, but he eventually received 20 years in prison. An electrician by profession, Ahriz settled in Spain in 1999 and left the country shortly after the terrorist attacks. In 2005, he moved to Syria, where he was arrested. Local authorities then extract him to his homeland, reports AP.

In the Chelyabinsk region, random witnesses "helped" robbers to clean the jewelry store. Instead of calling the police, buyers began to spread jewelry in their pockets. To date, the police of the city of Zlatoust have already detained all members of a gang of robbers.

The Russian Union of Gospel Christians-Baptists opposed the removal of discriminatory restrictions from people of non-traditional sexual orientation. "We officially declare that we do not support and condemn such a decision, since it carries a loss of universal values ​​and contradicts common sense," the Union said in an interfax -religion portal today.

Dismissed at their own free will, during the year, will be able to receive unemployment benefits, which from January 1, 2009 will be a maximum of 4900 rubles. The bill "On Amendments to the Law of the Russian Federation" On Employment in the Russian Federation "The State Duma of the Russian Federation approved in the third reading on December 19.

The head of the Ministry of Industry and Trade of Russia, Viktor Khristenko, expects that the Russian car market will restore the positions lost due to the global crisis by 2012 and will reach a peak in sales by 2014. “I expect that from mid -2010, the Russian car market will begin positive trend, and by 2012 we will return to the tendency that was observed in the last year, and we will reach the peak of the sales market by about 2014,” Khristenko told reporters on Friday.