Tuva is mobilizing its resources for a war with wolves, whole population reached record numbers in the republic, after the prohibition on using poisons for their control took effect in Russia. Currently the numbers are in the vicinity of 2500-3000 individuals. In 2011,  3 million 250thousand rubles will be apportioned for this goal. This is  four times more than in 2009, when the question was first posed about the necessity for regulation of the numbers of these predators. In the population density of wolves, according to data of Commission of hunting and fishing, is in the first place in the Russian Federation. Just the reported losses from wolf attacks on sheepherding stations counted 34 million rubles in 2010. In 2010 hunters killed 433 wolves, which was several times more than in then preceding years. For comparison: in Irkutsk region and in neighboring Khakassia, only 30 wolves were killed  in each.

Why does the New Year in various countries have different names? Professor Nikolai Abayev has his own opinion about it.

-  It is necessary to realize  that this holiday of the nomads originated long before the advent of Buddhism, - said the professor. - And the first herdsmen-nomads based their  calendar on the realities of life. During many centuries, they attentively observed natural events and seasonal life cycles of various animals.

Today the Russian Orthodox Christians observe a great church holy day -  "Kreshchenie Gospodne" (The Baptism of the Lord). In Kyzyl, on the night from 18 to 19 January, the "kreshchenie' baths were organized in the park by the Yenisei river, and in a suburban town Serebryanka. Without regard for the -45 degree cold, about 1000 people participated in the holiday, which consists in consecration of the water and immersion in an ice hole. At 12 o'clock at night, together with the city residents,  the members of the government with Premier Sholban Kara-ool at the head, Pavel Bukhtoyarov-the procurator, and many others participated as the good tradition asks.

Russian scientists found three snow leopards, a lynx and mountain goats with the help pf photo-traps in the "Ubsunur depression" nature preserve in Tuva, as announced by  A. N. Severintsev Institute of Problems of Ecology and Evolution of RAN.

The snow leopard (irbis) is the least studied species of large cats in the world. This is caused by the fact that it inhabits remote, hard-to-reach areas, as well as that it is a really rare species.

This rare natural phenomenon happened long ago, in 1962, in Tuva, on the banks of the mountain taiga river Elegest, about 10 -15 km from the  Khovu-Aksy village.  I have told my friends many times about the night rainbow, this gift of nature that I witnessed,  but very often I was not believed. Now there is a lot of information about this phenomenon on the Internet, and nobody denies the possibility of a rainbow appearing at night, caused by moonlight during rain.

But regardless of the fact that there are many photographs by eyewitnesses, in almost 50 years after our rainbow I have not met anybody who has actually seen a night rainbow.

Usually people start thinking about arzhaans closer to July, around the time when they "ripen". But we have several reasons to talk about healing springs in December. First, our ancerstors would start preparations for  a trip to an arzhaan six months ahead of time, to get ready, and think everything out in great detail. Second, the project "Nine Treasures of Tuva" is coming to a close, and we would very much like arzhaans to be among the treasures. And the main reason is that after a political period in her life, Kara-Kys Arakchaa, a scientist-chemist, an author of  the popular brochure "Story of the Arzhaans of Tuva" and a delegate  to the State Duma, returned to Tuva.

- Kara-Kys Dongakovna, we are glad that you returned to the republic , and happy that you returned to the arzhaans. Did you vote for the "Nine Treasures"?

- I voted, and I voted for all the arzhaans that were on the list.

Anomalous cold weather with thirty degree (centigrade), and in the north of Krasnoyarsk Krai and Irkutsk region even 40 degree cold is expected in the next few days  in practically all the regions of the Siberian federal area, as the Emergency services announced.

“On territories of Krasnoyarsk Krai, republic Khakassia, and Irkutsk Region, there is a possibility of  emergency situations of municipal character on December 10-12,  occasioned by failures of energy delivery and transportation, because of the strong cold, - as was announced on Friday by the Siberian regional center.

Matters of fortifying inter-ethnic agreement are to be evaluated at the Convention of the peoples of Tuva, which will start work in Kyzyl on 10 December. It is expected that about 300 delegates from various districts and cities of the republic, representing different ethnic groups living in Tuva, will take part in the international forum. According to data from the 2002 census, the population of this region includes more than 30 ethnic groups.

The site of  Belorussian “Narodnaya gazeta” (www.ng.by) is holding an internet voting for “7 Wonders”. Among the main objects of which the Oktyabrsk district of Gomelskaya region of Belorussia is proud of  is  a monument of the only tank that was used as a battering ram against an armored train in military history. The act was performed by a native of Tuvan Todzha, 18-year-old Mikhail Artemievich Bukhtuyev. Every year during state holidays, and on Mikhail Bukhtuyev’s birthday - 23 November - wreaths are brought to the monument, as Larisa Teplova, the chief of the department of ideological work of Oktyabrsk district administration informed “Tuva-Online”.