Main News of Dec. 21 Posted byRussian_Village December 21, 2012 Leave a comment on Main News of Dec. 21 WORLD * Calling him the “perfect choice,” US President Barack Obama nominated former Democratic presidential nominee, Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry to replace Hillary Clinton as the nation’s next secretary of state. RUSSIA * A United Nations helicopter was downed in South Sudan, killing all four Russian crew members on board, a source at the Russian embassy in Khartoum told RIA Novosti * The lower chamber of the Russian federal legislature, the State Duma, approved in the third and final reading a bill prohibiting the adoption of Russian children by Americans * Russia is putting back the launch of a project to build two Mistral-class amphibious assault ships under French license from 2013 to 2016 * The UN Security Council has authorized the deployment of an international military contingent to liberate northern Mali from Islamist rebels and Tuareg separatists SPORTS * Police in the Moscow Region confirmed that they were conducting a number of searches targeting the Russian Soccer Fan Association, known by its Russian acronym VOB