FOOTBALL. December 8-9. Champions League. 6th round . December 9--12. FIFA Club World Cup. Abu Dhabi (UAE). Preliminary round, quarter-finals . The group stage of the competition between the strongest teams of the Old World is coming to an end. Before the last round, our Rubin and CSKA retain their chances of getting into the playoffs. All matches will start at the same time (22.45 Moscow time).

Croatian President does not want to wait for the Serbs Today, the leadership of the European Union plans to consider the prospects for admitting Albania and some states of the former Yugoslavia to its ranks. Croatia has the best chances among the candidates. Croatian politicians have no doubt that the relevant documents will be signed by the next president of the country, whose name may become known as early as December 27.

Russia and the United States will continue negotiations on nuclear weapons reduction Russia and the United States could theoretically sign a new Treaty on the Reduction and Limitation of Strategic Offensive Arms (START) by December 10. On this day, American President Barack Obama will receive the Nobel Peace Prize in Oslo. The signing of a Russian-American treaty would be a good arrangement for a solemn ceremony, confirming the correctness of the decision of the Nobel Committee.

A children's fairy tale turned out to be an adult story Two friends, two characters, two characters from Sergei Kozlov’s fairy tales, familiar to everyone from childhood, appeared at the Meyerhold Center in a performance that was not at all for children.

The past 2008 became the most successful year for the Volvo Group in the entire history of the division’s work on the Russian market. The company celebrated its 35th anniversary in Russia with a new sales record. But the global financial crisis struck, and a lot changed in the market. However, Lars CORNELIUSSON, General Director of the Volvo Group in Russia, remains optimistic and expects that in 2010 the situation in the field of commercial freight transport will change.

The draw for the World Cup -- 2010 took place There are almost six months left before the start of the FIFA World Cup, and at the suggestion of its organizers, the whole world is already learning the words and expressions of the 11 dialects that are official in the Republic of South Africa.

Pro-Western alliance depends on communists Today there will be another and perhaps the last attempt by the current composition of the Moldovan parliament to elect the country’s president. There is still no certainty that it will be successful. The first took place on November 10.

Before the Ukraine-European Union summit, which took place on Friday, Naftogaz of Ukraine paid Gazprom ahead of schedule for the gas received in November. As previously reported, Ukraine bought about 3.6 billion cubic meters of gas for approximately $770 million. The Russian concern confirmed the receipt of money “in full.” Thus, failure to fulfill financial obligations by the Ukrainian side will not be grounds for stopping gas supplies and transit.

November 4 -- December 4, 2009 “Politicians Through the Eyes of the Media,” a joint project of “Vremya Novostei” and the “Medialogia” company, are ratings of political figures who are most actively discussed in the federal press and on central TV channels.

In terms of the number of victims, the fire in Perm became the largest in the modern history of Russia Today in Russia, nationwide mourning has been declared for the victims of the tragedy in Perm, where on Saturday night, as a result of a fire in the Lame Horse nightclub, according to official data, 112 people were killed and the same number were seriously injured. But these figures, apparently, are not final.

American actor sues Wikipedia for libel The openness of Wikipedia resulted in a lawsuit for its owners. American actor Ron Livingston sued the online encyclopedia for libel, invasion of privacy and use of his name without permission, writes Lenta.ru. The actor, known for his roles in the TV series Office Space, The Negotiators and Sex and the City, complains that someone constantly makes offensive edits to the Wikipedia article about him.

Russia made another attempt to clarify its position on joining the WTO More than 2,700 delegates from 153 countries met last week in Geneva, where the 7th Ministerial Conference of the World Trade Organization took place. The agenda included the current state of the multilateral trading system, ways of its development, and the economic situation in the world.

Russia approves draft food security doctrine The food security doctrine, the draft of which was approved by the Security Council on Friday at its regular meeting, should, according to the Russian President, become one of the ways to implement the new national security strategy adopted in May 2009.

In most of European Russia, the weather is controlled by a frosty anticyclone. Significant precipitation is not expected there, and the thermometer columns will gradually creep down. In the northwestern region there will be light precipitation in places, daytime temperatures will be -3...+2°C, in the Pskov region up to +4°C. In the central region there is mostly no precipitation, during the day -2...-7оС, in the east up to -11...-14оС.

The successes of the nuclear deterrence policy may turn against it. Throughout the Cold War, nuclear weapons helped maintain peace in Europe and prevent bitter disputes from escalating into catastrophic armed conflict. But after going nearly 65 years without a large-scale war or nuclear attack, many prominent statesmen, scientists and analysts have come to take deterrence for granted.