Main news of December 7

RUSSIA

* Thousands of people queued up in front of Moscow's Cathedral of Christ the Savior to bid farewell to the deceased Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia Alexy II

* The Progress M-65 cargo spacecraft, which undocked from the International Space Station on September 17 and served as a temporary space lab, was successfully "buried" in the Pacific Ocean, Russia's Mission Control said

* Over 300 residents were left freezing in their apartments in the Republic of Yakutia in northeast Russia after a boiler house accident, the emergencies ministry said

WORLD

* Iran test-launched a new anti-ship missile as part of large-scale naval exercises in the Gulf of Oman, Iranian television said

* Armenia held ceremonies across the country to remember victims of a devastating earthquake that hit the South Caucasus republic twenty years ago, killing 25,000 people and leaving more than 500,000 homeless

* The riots that broke out in Athens after police shot dead a teenage boy left 16 banks, 20 shops and 12 cars burnt overnight in the Greek capital, the police said

* China lodged a strong protest over French President's Nicholas Sarkozy's meeting with Tibet's exiled spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, the official Xinhua news agency reported

* Taliban militants freed four policemen captured during a November 28 assault on a military convoy in the province of Badghis in northwestern Afghanistan, local security officials said