Employees of municipal transport in New York agreed to stop the strike while their trade union continues negotiations with the authorities, RIA Novosti reports. The exact time frame for the resumption of the work of city buses and the metro is not yet known. The citywide strike of municipal transport workers in New York began after the trade union leaders could not agree with the authorities about the parameters of a new labor agreement.

The American Senate extended for another six months the action of the Patriotic Act, reports Interfax . This law, which in the future should act constantly, expands the rights of American special services and law enforcement agencies in the fight against terrorism. In particular, it allows the authorities to secretly conduct searches, listen to telephone conversations, as well as apply other measures to combat terrorism.

The dollar continued yesterday a restrained fortification against the euro, reaching $ 1.1841. Although the pace of economic growth turned out to be slightly lower than the expectations (4.1% in the 3rd quarter instead of 4.3%), they were taken by the market as quite high, and the dollar remained stable.

Venezuela President Hugo Chavez publicly praised the president of Mexico Vicente Fox, for the first time after the diplomatic scandal between the two countries. "The position of the Mexican president seemed to me worthy descendants of Pancho Willia and Emiliano Sapat and their ancient ancestors - Aztecs," Chavez said. “I welcome him,” Chalus concluded. About this writes " Gazeta.ru ".

Capital airports work as usual, RIA Novosti reports with reference to the main center of the Unified System of the Russian Air Traffic Organization. According to the center, the night before and at night, due to heavy snowfall, the crew commanders independently decided to land. Now the weather has improved, and all airports are operating normally. Visibility in all airports is more than 1000 meters, all ups and landings are carried out on schedule, without failures.

Today, the energy of Russia, the CIS countries and the Baltic countries celebrate their professional holiday for the 85th time-Energy Day. The holiday counts its history since December 1920, when the Goalro plan was adopted. This fundamental document formed the tasks of the development of electrification as the basis for the rise of the entire national economy of the USSR. 10-15 years were allotted to implement the plan, but it was executed and overfulfilled much ahead of schedule.

The overlap of the Amur duct of Kazakevich will lead to the loss of part of its territory in favor of China, says Deputy Head of Rosprirodnadzor Mitnol, RIA Novosti reports. "We gave the neighbors a large territory, since the dam is unlikely to be dismantled," he said. According to Mitvol, the Chinese have long been applying for the disputed islands, in particular, the Great Ussuri, located in the chanckevich duct.

The Cosmos-3M launch vehicle, which started on Wednesday from the Plesetsk cosmodrome (Arkhangelsk region), successfully brought two satellites into orbit, said the head of the press service of the space forces, Colonel Alexei Kuznetsov.

The Ukrainian opposition has opened the Anti-NATO information center in Moscow today. The center is created on the initiative of the leader of the Ukrainian political bloc "People's Opposition" by Natalia Vitrenko and with the active support of the Ukrainian diaspora in Russia. “We want the Russian public to know about the plans of the Ukrainian government to join our country to NATO,” Vladimir Marchenko, chief of the election headquarters of Vitrenko, said at a press conference.

The Vice Speaker of the State Duma Vladimir Katrenko held a meeting today with the authors of the draft new version of the Law on Advertising (bill 120079-4), which was adopted in the first reading on April 20, 2005, reports Korspondent Polit.ru. As Katrenko told reporters according to the results of the meeting, he intends to name the date of further consideration of the bill in mid -January.

The shareholders of AvtoVAZ OJSC at an extraordinary meeting ahead of schedule terminated the powers of the former board of directors and elected its new composition. Many of the 12 people who entered the new board of directors were close to state standstings, so that in fact, today's meeting approved the company's transition under state control. Igor Esipovsky became the new general director of AvtoVAZ, and Vladimir Artyakov, the chairman of the board of directors.

We publish an abbreviated record of the starting part of the working seminar about the history of Russia, which developed in the conversation on the most important ideological and political topic.

The launch of the largest telecommunication satellite of the INSAT-4A, opening in India, the era of digital television was successful, RIA Novosti reports. A satellite weighing more than three tons brought into orbit carries 12 television transponders and 12 communication. The launch was made from the French Cosmodrome Kuru. The creation of a satellite, the planned life of which is 12 years, cost India of 300 million rupees (about $ 80 million), its launch is $ 50 million.

In France, a bill providing for the most “dragon” measures for the illegal distribution of music on the network is ready. According to the law, parliamentary hearings on which this week will be held, ordinary users of the file-sharing networks will be faced not only with fines, but also with the threat of falling in the bars. And software manufacturers are required to accept anti-pirate technology into their products.

The main task of the Russian energy in 2006, according to the head of the Russian Academy of Sciences of the Russian ESC, Anatoly Chubais, should be the involvement of investments. Speaking on Thursday at a solemn meeting dedicated to the Russian Energy Day, Chubais said: “Russian energy in 2006 has three main tasks - investments, investments and investments again,” RIA Novosti reports.