Main news of December 20

A roundup of what has happened in the past 24 hours

WORLD

* Georgian authorities have detained a suspect as an investigation is underway into Saturday's deadly demolition of a monument in the South Caucasus country's second largest city, Kutaisi

* At least 55 people were killed and dozens injured in a car accident in central Nigeria, authorities reported

* The United Nations should play the leading role in the settlement of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the chief of the Arab League said

* Eurostar trains carrying passengers in the undersea Channel Tunnel between Britain and France will remain suspended on Sunday over concerns of freezing weather, the rail operator has said

* Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili has sacked the governor of Georgia's western Imereti Region after two people were killed in the Saturday's explosion in Georgia's second largest city, Kutaisi, a presidential spokeswoman said

RUSSIA

* Russian special services should work more effectively to prevent internal and external threats to the country's security, President Dmitry Medvedev said

* Russia is concerned over the stance of the United States and the European Union on a UN resolution condemning the glorification of Nazism and the desecration of WWII monuments, the Foreign Ministry said

* Gas supply in the north of Russia's North Caucasus Republic of Ingushetia has restarted after an accident at the trunk pipeline, the republic's emergencies ministry said

* A powerful storm broke in two a Moldova-flagged cargo vessel off the Russian Black Sea resort of Sochi in the early hours of Sunday, a local emergencies service's spokesman said

RELIGION

* Archbishop Hilarion of Volokolamsk, who leads the Russian Orthodox Church's external church relations department, consecrated on Sunday a new church in the resort town of Pattaya in Thailand

BUSINESS

* Russia expects trade with Egypt to total $4 billion this year, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Sunday after talks with his Egyptian counterpart Ahmed Aboul Gheit

SCIENCE

* The crew of a Russian Soyuz spaceship is ready for early Monday's blastoff to the International Space Station (ISS), the spaceship commander said