In the Central District of St. Petersburg, the Spartak cinema, located on Kirochnaya Street, is on fire. As Interfax was informed on Friday by the press service of the State Fire and Fire Service of St. Petersburg, a message about the fire was received at the control panel on duty 01 at 4.49 am. At 5.42 the fire was assigned the third, increased level of complexity. According to the press service, the entire building is engulfed in flames. The roof collapsed.

Relatives of the dead hostages of "Nord-Ost" who have bank accounts opened For a private person to transfer money, you must write the details of the OSB, personal account number, full name. the person for whom the account is opened.

Chairman of the Central Election Commission of Russia Alexander Veshnyakov will fly to St. Petersburg on Friday, supervise the final stage of preparations for the elections to the city Legislative Assembly, scheduled for December 8. This was reported to Interfax by the press service of the CEC.

Photo from the site www.redstar.ru On December 6, 1941, near Moscow, the main forces of the Soviet Western Front under the command of Army General George Zhukov transferred to the counterattack (the day earlier, the troops of Colonel General Ivan Konev inflicted an auxiliary blow to the enemy). As a result, as we know, the Wehrmacht suffered his first major defeat in the Second World War.

The program of tax reform in Russia should be ready by the end of January next year, Ekho Moskvy reports. The government gave corresponding instructions to the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Economic Development and the Ministry of Taxes and Duties. Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov confirmed on Thursday that the Cabinet of Ministers intends to cut taxes. He emphasized that this is a real task. From the beginning of 2004, Russia is expected to abolish the sales tax.

Two US Air Force A-10 Thunderbolt II attack aircraft collided in the sky over Nevada during training flights. According to AP, one of the pilots died, the second managed to eject. The disaster occurred 113 kilometers from Las Vegas on Wednesday, but the news of it came from the military command just now. Nobody on the ground was hurt. The cost of each of the crashed planes is $9.8 million.

Several Russian human rights organizations have planned for December 12 in the center of Moscow a mass action "Demonstration for peace in Chechnya: we will break a vicious circle of violence." The action was sanctioned by the city authorities.

Two American engineers from Pennsylvania have developed an unusual refrigerator in which cooling is achieved through very strong sounds, reports BBC News . They hope to solve a number of environmental problems in this way: the destruction of the ozone layer from freon from conventional refrigerators, the threat of global warming from other gases used as refrigerants.

Although Russians tend to view NATO as an aggressive military bloc, more than half (56%) of them invariably speak out for Russia to strengthen its cooperation with the alliance, Interfax reports. Only 23% oppose it. Moreover, every fourth Russian believes that Russia's entry into NATO is "desirable and possible" (25%). Every the tenth considers the accession of Russia to alliance a "desirable" step, but believes this impossible.

Former Soviet dissident Vladimir Bukovsky told RFE/RL that Britain should join Denmark's decision not to extradite Zakayev to the Russian authorities. This is due to the fact that in the EU countries there is an agreement on mutual recognition of all legal decisions taken in any of the EU member states.

The Russian prosecutor's office will not demand that Georgia extradite the three Chechen fighters until the appropriate decision of the country's court, Interfax reports. "We respect the sovereignty and judiciary of Georgia and are waiting for the appropriate court decision on the extradition of our fellow citizens," Deputy Prosecutor General of the Russian Federation Sergei Fridinsky said.

Protests by air traffic controllers in Russia are expanding. Airport employees are demanding a two-fold increase in salaries. The hunger strike continues for the eighth day in Surgut, Nizhnevartovsk, Nefteyugansk. Later they were joined by dispatchers from several other cities, including Omsk. The day before, air traffic controllers in Novosibirsk began a hunger strike, and today employees of airports in Novokuznetsk and Tyumen have joined the action, Ekho Moskvy reports.

Akhmed Zakaev fears that Chechen fighters may organize terrorist attacks much more serious in their consequences than the recent hostage-taking in Moscow. He stated this in an exclusive interview with the British Guardian, given on the eve of his flight to London. According to Zakayev, the dissatisfaction of the Chechen people with the ongoing killings carried out by the Russian military, as well as Moscow's rejection of a political settlement, is growing.

Photo from the site www.panorama.spb.ru December 8 - election day at the Legislative Assembly of St. Petersburg for each deputy mandate accounts for 8 applicants. According to the concentration of high political technologies, the current campaign even slightly surpassed the previous one. 6 cases of the spread of false information about the voluntary removal of the namerrome in favor of another namerek were recorded. The court filed 40 claims on the deprivation of candidate registration.

In the Sea of ​​Azov, searches are underway for seven fishermen, including three Russian citizens. As Interfax reports with reference to the press service of the Ministry of Emergency Situations of Ukraine, on December 1, three Russians, 20, 21 and 30 years old, went to sea. They went fishing from the Russian port of Azov on the boat "Amur" in the direction of the Taganrog Bay. On December 3, the port administrator notified his Ukrainian colleagues about the disappearance of the fishermen.