The secret services of Karachay-Cherkessia are wondering who they spent the whole day storming One of the central blocks of the capital of Karachay-Cherkessia, the city of Cherkessk, yesterday turned into the arena of fierce military operations, the likes of which federal forces in the North Caucasus have not had to wage for more than a year. Early in the morning, local intelligence officers discovered and blocked a group of suspected militants in one of the apartments.

In 2006, everyone united on the party field except the Democrats The past year has significantly changed the picture of party life in Russia. The parties set a course for merger and consolidation. This trend was largely dictated by the requirements of the new electoral legislation.

The head of the Biathlon Union was re-elected for another four years The current president of the Russian Biathlon Union, multiple Olympic champion Alexander Tikhonov was re-elected yesterday to the post of head of the RBU. At the reporting and election conference, held at 201 km of the Simferopol highway in the Tula region in the Grumant park-hotel, 50 out of 74 delegates, representing 46 regions and regions of Russia, voted for Tikhonov.

From 2007, all taxes in Russia will be paid exclusively in rubles The annual tax changes that have become traditional, introduced in January, in the coming year 2007, unlike previous years, will not be so global, quite expected, but nevertheless quite significant. Unlike previous years, it is now not so much the tax rates that are subject to change as the procedure for their collection.

Ministries have compiled a list of their good deeds On Wednesday, Prime Minister Mikhail Fradkov will sum up the results of the outgoing year. The White House jokingly calls it the “ten Cabinet good deeds.” And yesterday the results of the year, summed up by ministries and departments, appeared on the government website. As usual, the two government titans - the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Economic Development and Trade - spoke the most conceptually.

The creation of a “Fair Russia” on the ground is accompanied by assault The regional branches of the parties participating in A Just Russia cannot make peace . In the Sverdlovsk region, the conference on the creation of a regional cell of the “Socialist Revolutionaries” has already been disrupted twice, but in Khanty-Mansiysk it still took place, although no one can say for sure whether it was legitimate.

The British destroyed a police station in Basra In the city of Basra in southern Iraq, the British army yesterday stormed and then used explosives to level the building of the Iraqi police special unit for combating particularly serious crimes. The operation was authorized by Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki. The command of the British forces informed him that the police station was preparing to massacre 76 Iraqi prisoners.

Nuclear charge could appear in three years Yesterday, the Japanese right-wing nationalist newspaper Sankei Shimbun reported that the country's government is discussing the possibility of creating nuclear weapons . The newspaper published the contents of a government document dated September 20. It discusses plans to produce small nuclear warheads for missiles within three to five years.

December was marked by the figures of departed leaders - Brezhnev, Pinochet and Turkmenbashi. It seems that the creators of the “Judge for Yourself” program, who were discussing whether Pinochet was a hero or a dictator, made a mistake with one of the experts, Sergei Kurginyan.

Bethlehem awaits pilgrims from Russia Almost one and a half billion people all over the Earth rejoiced yesterday at the Nativity of Christ according to the Gregorian calendar. Although most Orthodox Christians celebrate this bright holiday in two weeks according to the Julian calendar, yesterday Patriarch of Moscow and All Rus' Alexy II sent congratulations to the rectors of dozens of churches and communities.

Events. Leonid Parfenov in the film “And Leonid Ilyich Personally” managed to create a surprisingly non-judgmental portrait of the “political figure of the era of Alla Pugacheva” and the most stagnant time. At the same time, the film about the same Brezhnev, “The Tale of a Communist,” filmed during his lifetime (1976), was stylistically reminiscent of modern news from federal channels. In general, the leader’s century revealed a lot of parallelisms between that time and the present.

Ethiopia bombs Somali Islamists Ethiopian Air Force planes yesterday bombed the airport of the capital of Somalia - Mogadishu, which is under the control of the Islamist group "Union of Islamic Courts". Ethiopian planes dropped two bombs, one damaged the runway, the other hit a building occupied by the Mujahideen. Bombs were also dropped on the Somali towns of Baladwein and Bandiradli, controlled by Islamist militants.

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Banking business in Russia is growing faster than in other countries of the world The Russian banking system in the past year turned out to be the fastest growing in the world. The rate of lending to the population has increased by one and a half times, and the real sector of the economy has increased by a quarter. Such data were presented by Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin at the traditional weekly meeting of government members with President Putin.

The launch of a new operating system, as has already happened in the practice of the computer giant Microsoft, was not without problems. The premiere of Windows Vista took place a month ago, and experts have already found flaws in the program that were made by the developers. The first to notice Vista's imperfections were employees of information security research centers and computer hackers.