Four people died as a result of incidents on the first night of the New Year in Moscow, a source in the capital’s law enforcement agencies told RIA Novosti . At about 3 o’clock in the morning there was a fire in an apartment in the Novopedelkino area on Strazovskaya Street. During the extinguishing in the burning room, firefighters found the bodies of two people. Presumably, people died as a result of smoking in bed while intoxicated.

On the first day of the New Year in the north of the Japanese island, Honseyu about 240 thousand people were left without water due to an accident in the water supply. The local communal service is trying to quickly solve the problem, but believes that he will be able to launch treatment facilities no earlier than January 3, Tokyo media reports.

On the first day of 2009, Iraq began a “new life”: control of security in the country has moved to the government led by Prime Minister Nuri Al-Malika. The troops of the international coalition must leave Iraq , with the exception of the American army, whose stay can last another three years. Of the rest of the countries, only two states - Great Britain and Australia, who signed agreements with Baghdad, can remain in Iraq for another six months.

In the New Year's holidays, anti -chimelled agents are in great demand. People with an average and higher average prefer known medicines, of those that are often advertised, the rest are treated with popular fusion. Demand for such drugs increases after a new year by three times, calculated infox.ru . People prefer cheap medicines expensive.

In the suburbs, on suspicion of murder, the son of the famous actor Vasily Livanov Boris Livanov was detained. As a source in law enforcement agencies told, on Thursday, January 1 at 09:30, a signal of a fight on the landing of one of the houses along Druzhba Street was received in the Khimki internal affairs department. "The police officers who arrived at the scene of the accident detained Boris Livanov, born in 1974, the son of the famous actor Vasily Livanov," the source said.

This year, the legendary London clock and the Big Ben tower, which today at midnight, were announced by the whole world by the blow of their large Great Bell bell, have been performed this year. At the beginning of 1859, the construction of the clock tower was completed. Then, on May 31, the clock went, and on July 11 of the same year the first blow of the watch bell sounded.

The National Bank of Belarus announced that from January 2, it deviates the national currency in relation to the dollar by almost 20%. This is stated in the message posted on Thursday on the website of the National Bank . Since January 2, the National Bank established a dollar in relation to the Belarusian ruble at 2 thousand 650 Belarusian rubles against 2 thousand 200 rubles, which was set on January 1.

Ukraine reduced the volume of Russian gas transit to Europe. As the head of the board of Naftogaz of Ukraine Oleg Dubina said on Thursday at an press conference in Interfax , deliveries were reduced by 21 million cubic meters per day. According to him, this is due to the need to use the specified gas volume to ensure the entire transit in the absence of signed contracts.

New Year's congratulations to the President of the Russian Federation Dmitry Medvedev, which was broadcast for residents of the Far East, immediately appeared on the Internet on the Rutube website. In his appeal, Medvedev, who first congratulated the Russians as the president, did not concern political or economic issues, wishing all fellow citizens happiness and fulfillment of desires.

The Israeli armored units are concentrated on the border with the gas sector, and, according to incoming messages, at any moment the beginning of the ground operation to destroy the military structure of the radical movement "Hamas" is expected. Regional experts suggest that this will happen on the night of January 2, ITAR-TASS reports. “We only started to fulfill the task. This is only the beginning of the operation, which was announced a few days ago.

The world celebrated the New Year with fireworks and concerts. The scale of the holiday was more modest than last year - a tribute to the crisis. But in Paris, they traditionally burned cars, in Naples - they fell into the air. Snow fell in Venice.

On January 1, Russia completely stopped supplying gas to Ukraine, but confirmed the readiness to continue negotiations on the conclusion of the contract for 2009.

Saudi Arabia agreed with Somali pirates on the release of the Sirius Star super-tank without buying off, ITAR-TASS reports with reference to the Somali private radio station. She operates with data from Riyadh, according to which the pirates agreed to remove their claim to pay $ 25 million . A tanker with a load of two million barrels of oil worth about $ 200 million was captured by pirates off the coast of Somalia back in November 2008.

In Moscow, they will not increase the fee for the use of detachable, Interfax said, citing law enforcement agencies of the capital. Now in the capital the lowest prices throughout Russia for the services of sobering. The last time the cost of using the services of detectors was set for a very long time, by order of Moscow mayor Yuri Luzhkov and is still about 100 rubles. There were no other orders for the amount of fees for the services of the medical workers after 1994.

In the west of Ukraine, celebrations began on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of the birth of the leader of Ukrainian nationalists Stepan Bandera . The festivities began in his homeland, in the village of Old Ukrynov, the Ivano-Frankivsk region, where a veche was held with the participation of power and clergy, political parties, people's deputies, and local residents.