Main News of Dec. 25

A roundup of what has happened in the past 24 hours

WORLD

* A military plane crashed in southern Kazakhstan, killing all 27 people onboard, including the acting head of Kazakhstan’s border guard service, the National Security Committee said

* Egypt’s draft constitution was approved by more than 60 percent of voters, Supreme Electoral Commission Samir Abu El-Maati said

RUSSIA

* Russian ministers are split on the controversial bill banning Americans from adopting Russian children, President Vladimir Putin’s spokesman said

* Mikhail Kalashnikov, the 93-year-old inventor of the legendary AK-47 assault rifle, has been hospitalized, his assistant Nikolai Shklyaev said

* Police have detained a former director of the Federal Property Management Agency for the Moscow region on suspicion of involvement in the embezzlement of state property worth more than 10 billion rubles (about $300 million), the Interior Ministry said

* About a dozen Russian warships are converging on the Mediterranean and the Gulf of Aden as part of a large-scale strategic exercise, a high-ranking representative the General Staff of Russia’s Armed Forces said

* Russian oil pipeline monopoly Transneft launched the second leg of the East Siberia - Pacific Ocean (ESPO) oil pipeline