Main News of December 18

A roundup of what has happened in the past 24 hours

WORLD

* The economic deal Ukraine signed with Moscow helped the country to stave off the imminent threat of economic and social collapse, Ukraine’s Prime Minister Mykola Azarov said

* The Brazilian government has expressed doubts about the possibility of granting political asylum to US fugitive intelligence leaker Edward Snowden in exchange for his help in the investigation of US spying on the Brazilian soil

* US President Barack Obama dealt a sharp reprimand to Russia over its anti-gay laws by including two openly homosexual athletes in the official delegation to the Winter Olympics in Sochi and declining to attend the Games himself

* A Russian man has pleaded guilty in US federal court in Wyoming to attempting to illegally export military-grade thermal-imaging rifle sights from the United States, according to court documents

RUSSIA

* Russia will send armored trucks to Syria as part of an international effort to remove chemical weapons from the war-torn country for destruction at sea, the international watchdog overseeing the operation said in a statement

* A Russian federal lawmaker said that a bill to blacklist passengers who behave violently on airplanes is a “priority” following the recent beating of a flight attendant by a former high-ranking official

* Russia is upgrading its short-range Pantsir-S air defense systems with an improved capability to intercept unmanned aerial vehicles, a Defense Ministry spokesman said

* Remains of more than a dozen people presumably executed during Stalin’s repression campaign in the 1930s, were discovered in Siberia, local investigators said