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Main news of December 26

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WORLD * Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev ordered all top government officials to scrap plans to celebrate the upcoming New Year abroad * Iran has... 26.12.2011, Sputnik International

2011-12-26T19:59+0000

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Main news of December 26

19:59 GMT 26.12.2011

WORLD

* Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev ordered all top government officials to scrap plans to celebrate the upcoming New Year abroad

* Iran has capability to disrupt any military plots the U.S. may seek to implement against it, Defense Minister Brigadier General Ahmad Vahidi said

* A court in northern Tajikistan convicted 53 people for a terrorist attack that killed two last September, with five of those convicted receiving life sentences

* The Transdnestr Central Election Commission said former parliamentary speaker Yevgeny Shevchuk won Sunday's presidential polls

RUSSIA

* Russian businesswoman Natalia Gulevich got a suspended sentence after 1 year in jail

* Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said the government should boost its presence on television and the internet to instill people with confidence in the future

* The launch of a Russian Proton-M carrier rocket with a Dutch telecommunications satellite SES-4 (NSS-14) onboard was called off due to "technical problems"

* An outspoken Russian nationalist, Boris Mironov, was allowed to be included in the list of presidential candidates by a Supreme Court decision

* Russia’s Phobos-Grunt spacecraft bound for Mars and stuck in an orbit around Earth will fall in southwestern Afghanistan on January 14, the U.S. Strategic Command said

* Russian upper house speaker Valentina Matviyenko slammed the presidential envoy system

* There are nearly 25,000 hazardous underwater objects containing solid radioactive waste in Russia, an emergencies ministry official said

* A riot police officer in St. Petersburg has been given a three-and-a-half-year suspended sentence for beating a protester at an anti-government rally last year

DEFENSE

* Col. Gen. Alexander Shlyakhturov retired as chief of Russia’s military intelligence agency and handed over his duties to Maj. Gen. Igor Sergun, a Defense Ministry spokesman said