Residents of Germany are losing their taste for beer, according to the country's Brewers Association. Beer consumption per capita in Germany, which once ranked first in the world in consumption of this drink, fell by 3.5 liters in 2007 to 112.5 liters per year. German beer consumption has fallen for the eighth time in the last nine years. The 80s are considered record years - then the consumption of an intoxicating drink averaged 156 liters per year per capita.

The Interim Commission of the State Duma on the regulations on Monday registered four Duma factions - United Russia, the Communist Party of the Russian Federation, the Liberal Democratic Party and Just Russia, RIA Novosti reports.

At Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky gas stations, due to a shortage of gasoline, its sale is limited to 30 liters "in one hand," a representative of one of the companies supplying automotive fuel to the peninsula told RIA Novosti. According to him, high-octane gasoline is sold at all gas stations on Monday at a fixed price of 27 rubles per liter of AI-92 and 28 rubles for AI-95. At the same time, each motorist is given no more than 30 liters of fuel, gasoline is not sold in canisters and barrels.

The Ministry of Defense of Japan, in the event of a threat of a missile attack on the country, will be able to use missile defense systems without prior notification of the Prime Minister, which was previously a prerequisite for launching interceptor missiles, RIA Novosti reports with reference to the Kyodo Tsushin news agency. The decision to change the procedure for using the missile defense system was taken by the ministry on Monday.

Four years ago, the game "Putin Chess" appeared on the Internet - something between chess and the Lines computer game. The meaning of this fun was to cross a hedgehog with a snake - to play by the new rules.

According to Russian Newsweek, in 2007, 12 films were released with the participation of Mikhail Efremov and at least 6 more were filmed, coming out in 2008. It seems that not a single significant picture of the season could do without Efremov: “12”, “Election Day”, “Irony of Fate. Continuation”, “Leningrad”, “Indigo” – as usual, this actor has all the roles of the second plan, but very memorable.

The subjective list of the best films of the year from the Russian Newsweek film reviewer, traditional for the New Year's issue, needs comments this time. Although some on our site swear that the movie season was bad, I would like to expand the list. So it's not such a bad season. Regrettably, we excluded "The Queen" and "Letters from Iwo Jima", although they did not make it into our top ten for 2006 either, as they only appeared in Europe and Russia in the spring.

Colonel of the medical service Yuri Obolensky, a hereditary prince, the son of the leader of the Russian Nobility Assembly Andrei Obolensky, was seriously alarmed when he learned that his family line in the male line goes back to a certain Slavic ancestor. Prince Yuri Andreevich expected something completely different: he, a supporter of the Norman theory, was sure that, as it should be for Rurikovich, he descended from this legendary Scandinavian.