Main News of December 8

WORLD

* South Korea has deployed two King Sejong the Great class Aegis destroyers in the Yellow Sea with one more to be sent there shortly in anticipation of an imminent North Korean rocket launch, the Yonhap news agency reported

* Former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, leader of the center-right People of Freedom (PDL) party, said he will run for office again next year

* A 61-year-old Czech man died from methanol poisoning in Prague, bringing the death toll to 38, the CTK news agency reported

RUSSIA

* More than twice the number of Russians approve of recent US legislation imposing sanctions on Russian officials deemed to have violated human rights than disapprove, according to a nationwide poll released this week by the respected Levada Center

* American pop diva Lady Gaga expressed her gratitude to Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev for what she perceives to be his lack of support for legislation barring “homosexual propaganda” in Russia

* A Proton-M carrier rocket blasted off to orbit a Yamal-class telecoms satellite for Gazprom Space Systems (GSS), a telecommunications arm of Russia’s energy giant Gazprom