Moscow Region boarding houses and VIP-class hotels pulled customers from foreign resorts, tour operators note. According to experts, many admirers of the Lux class preferred not to fly away on the holidays for distant foreign resorts, but to meet them near the house - in VIP -class hotels near Moscow.

The first funeral of those who died in an accident in the south of Israel will be held today in St. Petersburg. Mourning ceremonies will be held in five cemeteries of the city of RIA Novosti . The bus, in which representatives of Russian tour operators were located, on December 16 fell into the abyss near the resort Eilat in the south of Israel. In the car accident, 24 Russians were killed and 25 were injured.

More than 50 Russian regions will receive this year from the federal budget in the total amount of 19 billion 603 million 73 thousand rubles. The order was signed by the Prime Minister of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin. The document was signed in accordance with part 2 of Article 14 of the Federal Law "On the federal budget for 2008 and for the planning period of 2009 and 2010".

Forward "Hull City" Nick Barmbby repeated an achievement that had previously conquered only three players in the history of the English Premier League. Having distinguished himself in the match against Sanderland in the match of the 18th round of the championship of England, Barmbby brought the number of clubs for which he scored goals as part of the Premier League, to six.

The upcoming New Year holidays are going to spend more than Russians at home than the respondents declared such plans last year, sociologists found out. A third (34%) of Russians during the December survey reported that they were not going to go anywhere or travel on New Year's holidays and Christmas holidays.

President of Ukraine Viktor Yushchenko said that the Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko will have to answer for the policy that she pursued throughout the year. “I am convinced that the Prime Minister today adequately cannot evaluate economic processes and social ... Convinced, along with the healthy forces of the parliament, it is necessary to form new foundations, principles today and do a separate action plan,” the president said in an interview with Inter.

The Belarusian opposition politician Alexander Kozulin at a meeting of the Central Committee of the Belarusian Social-Democratic Party, Gramada, announced his withdrawal from the party. “I brought the line under a certain stage of my life. And the exit from the party is the logical end of this stage,” Kozulin said on Sunday on the phone of Interfax agency.

One person died as a result of an avalanche in the mountains near Kirovsk. This was announced today by ITAR-TASS, the head of the press service of the Main Directorate of the Russian Emergencies Ministry for the Murmansk Region Irina Greatskaya. The emergency occurred on December 20 at about 14:56 Moscow time. An avalanche was in the mountains near Kirovsk. She touched one of the skiers. Rescuers immediately left for the scene. In the evening, the body of the deceased was discovered.

The clashes of the anarchists with the police at the Polytechnic Institute resumed that night, Greek TV channels report. Young people who ran out of the university’s territory threw stones and bottles with easily flammable liquid at police officers, and also arranged flaming barricades on the streets around the institute. Special forces responded with tear gas. According to the Antenna television channel, anarchists from other European countries who came to Athens joined the Greeks.

The leadership of the British Ministry of Defense plans in the event of an aggravation of the situation in the south of Afghanistan to increase the number of military contingent of the United Kingdom in the province of Hilmen by 3 thousand soldiers and officers. This is reported today by ITAR-TASS with reference to the Sunday Times.

The Russian Communist Party held a protest in Moscow against the anti -crisis measures of the government, which demanded to stop the growth of unemployment and primary goods, the Secretary of the Moscow City Committee of the Communist Party, Yevgeny Dorovin, told RIA Novosti . "The rally participants adopted a resolution condemning the government’s actions to exit the crisis and requiring it (government) of resignation," Dorovin said.

The government list of enterprises is now being formed for state support, the main enterprises of the coal industry of Kuzbass should be included in this list. This was announced today by Deputy Prime Minister Igor Sechin at a meeting on the development of coal and metallurgical industries in a difficult situation in world markets. Sechin clarified that the list of system -forming enterprises will be approved by the government in the very near future.

Russia began the supply of components to Iran to the S-300 air defense system, on Sunday the deputy chairman of the parliamentary commission of Iran on foreign policy and security, Ismail Cousari, said on Sunday. Thus, Iran first confirmed the fact of supply officially. "This weapons will be used to strengthen the defense potential and protect the borders of the Islamic Republic of Iran," said the parliamentarian, whose words are quoted by Iranian official newsstructure of IRNA.

One of the most senior HSBC bank employees Kristen Schnor was found hanged in the prestigious Jumeirah Carlton Tower Hotel, located in the London district of Knightsbridge. This was announced today by the British broadcasting corporation of the Air Force . It is reported that the incident occurred on Wednesday, but Scotland Yard gave him public only now. The London police do not interpret Schnor's death as suspicious, thereby making it clear that he himself put his hands on himself.

Numerous police outfits are undertaken on Sunday in Vladivostok tried to scatter the motorcades gathering in different parts of the city of participants in an unauthorized protest against raising customs duties for foreign cars, RIA Novosti reports. More than seventy participants in an unauthorized action on their cars at noon local time (05:00 Moscow time) tried to gather in a column on the outskirts of the city at the Zarya stop.