Main News of January 7

A roundup of what has happened in the past 24 hours

WORLD

* US President Barack Obama on Monday nominated former US Sen. Chuck Hagel as his next secretary of defense and John Brennan, a White House counterterrorism adviser, as the new head of the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA)

* Former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi said he has reached an agreement with the Northern League to run together in upcoming elections and that he wanted to be Economy Minister in the new government

RUSSIA

* Russian Orthodox believers flocked to churches to attend Christmas services with some 6,000 people attending the service in Moscow’s Christ the Savior Cathedral

* Policemen in Russia’s volatile southern republic of Kabardino-Balkaria killed three suspected militants, who allegedly plotted terrorist attacks for Orthodox Christmas services, a local police department said

SPORTS

* Lionel Messi won the 2012 FIFA world player of the year award for a record fourth-successive time after a record-breaking haul of 91 goals over 12 months