Russian President Dmitry Medvedev signed the law of the Russian Federation on the amendment to the Constitution concerning the change in the terms of office of the president and the State Duma, RIA Novosti reported on Tuesday, citing the Kremlin press service. The State Duma adopted the law on November 21, 2008, and the Federation Council approved it on November 26.

The police will restrict the movement of vehicles on the night of December 31 to January 1 in the center of Moscow in connection with the mass festivities on Red, Tverskaya, Theater and Lubyanka squares, a representative of the press service of the Moscow traffic police department told RIA Novosti on Tuesday.

Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Veijajiv on Tuesday managed to announce his government's political and economic program to lawmakers, Reuters reported. Elected prime minister two weeks ago, Abhisit Veyjajiv, according to the Constitution, was obliged to address the parliamentarians with a keynote speech before taking up his duties in full.

More than 2,000 Mozambicans were forced to leave their homes and move to safer areas due to floods caused by heavy rains, RIA Novosti reported on Tuesday, citing the Associated Press and local authorities. Authorities report one death. The inhabitants of Mozambique suffer hardship every year during the rainy season, when water floods not only houses, but also agricultural crops.

Gazprom and Ukraine have not yet agreed on a solution to the gas problem. The Ukrainian side, which owes more than $2 billion for the supplied gas, runs the risk of being left without a contract for 2009. There are two days left for negotiations before the New Year. Both gas workers and journalists still hope to celebrate the holiday at home, and not at work, waiting, as has already happened, for the “valve” to be closed.

A "security perimeter" will be created in downtown Washington on the day of the inauguration of Barack Obama on January 20, according to a statement released on Monday by the joint inaugural committee of the US Congress. "Metro stations, bus stops and streets inside this perimeter will be closed," the statement said.

Russian Minister of Culture Alexander Avdeev will arrive on January 26 on a one-day visit to Tallinn, where a program of cooperation between the ministries of culture of the two countries will be approved, RIA Novosti reported on Tuesday, citing a statement by the head of the Estonian Ministry of Culture, Laine Janes. According to Janes, in February 2008 the ministers signed an agreement in Moscow on cooperation in the field of culture and mass communications.

At the end of December 2008, the Federal Tariff Service (FTS) approved tariff growth rates for 2009 for a number of key sectors of the Russian economy. From January 1, 2009 in Russia, in particular, electricity, gas and freight rail transportation will rise in price.

King Albert II of the Belgians is expected to approve on Tuesday the composition of the new Belgian government, which will introduce the so-called "former" Herman van Rompuy to the monarch. The king, formally the head of state, instructed the 61-year-old chairman of the lower house of the Belgian federal parliament on Sunday to form a new cabinet.