Main news of December 27

A roundup of what has happened in the past 24 hoursW

WORLD

* The United States has condemned violence in Iran where four to eight people died in clashes between opposition demonstrators and police

* Uzbekistan is voting on Sunday in elections to the lower house of parliament, with candidates contesting 150 seats in the ex-Soviet republic's legislature

* U.S. President Barack Obama has ordered a complete review of the air transportation security control system following a recent incident, a White House spokesman said

* Pope Benedict XVI on Sunday had lunch with the poor and homeless at a soup kitchen in downtown Rome

* A 23-year-old Nigerian man has been charged with attempting to destroy a Northwest Airlines aircraft on Christmas Day, the U.S. Department of Justice said in a statement

* Tajik President Emomali Rakhmon has been re-elected leader of the ruling People's Democratic Party

RUSSIA

* Several thousand private houses and a few five-story buildings were left on Sunday without heating in the city of Novosibirsk in Russia's west Siberia due to a damaged gas pipeline

* The Eternal Flame at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Moscow's Alexander Garden to honor the dead of the Great Patriotic War was temporarily relocated on Sunday due to repairs

BUSINESS

* South Korea has signed a $20 billion agreement with the United Arab Emirates on building four nuclear power plants in the oil-rich Middle East country, the news agency Yonhap reported