RT News - December 21, 2014 (12:00 MSK)

Two police officers are shot dead in New York. The gunman claimed it was revenge for the recent police killings of black civilians; The rouble suffers its worst single-day drop in over a decade - as President Putin blames external factors for the current economic troubles; The two bloody sieges which shocked the world this week - 132 children were massacred by Taliban militants in an assault on a Pakistan school; and two hostages died in Australia when a supposed lone wolf attacker held up a Sydney cafe.