Journalists representing various television and radio companies stopped filming and recording at the European Union Congress on Monday. According to Reuters, in this way the journalists expressed their protest over the lack of information about what happened to their colleagues who disappeared in Iraq. On March 22, 2003, the team of the British television company ITN came under fire near the Iraqi city of Basra.

Pirated copies of the new Hollywood film "The Matrix Reloaded" are already on sale in Moscow. As the correspondent of "Echo of Moscow" reports, they are offered at the Pushkinsky cinema to those who want to buy tickets for this picture. The film will premiere in Moscow on May 21. In America, it was released only two days ago. Pirates offer copies of the film both on video cassettes and on computer disks.

The Prosecutor General's Office of Russia will insist on extradition Chechens who have been detained and are currently in Georgia, RIA Novosti reports. About this at a press conference in Rostov-on-Don, Deputy Prosecutor General of Russia Sergei Fridinsky.

The formation of a list of trees, flowers, birds for the public to choose national symbols of China has been completed, Interfax reports citing Chine Daily. The list of trees includes pine, cypress, poplar and willow - trees growing in many countries of the world, as well as unique gingko and metasequoia growing only in China. Gingko is supposedly the oldest plant on earth that survived the Ice Age and has existed on Earth for about 200 million years.

A criminal case has been opened on the fact of an outbreak of viral hepatitis A in the village of Komissarovskoye in the Sherbakulsky district of the Omsk region. According to assistant district prosecutor Tatyana Dubenyuk, the case was initiated under Article 236 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation "Violation of sanitary and epidemiological rules." According to the prosecutor's assistant, more than 30 villagers were hospitalized in the central district hospital from May 11 to May 16.

A terrorist riding a motorcycle blew himself up next to an Israeli military patrol near the Jewish settlement of Kfar Darom in the Gaza Strip on Monday morning. This is reported by Ha'aretz, citing sources in the IDF. His motorcycle crashed into an army jeep, and as a result, the martyr's belt detonated. As a result, three Israelis were slightly injured. The terrorist is dead.

27 people were evacuated from the village of Kalvitsy in the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia) due to the beginning of ice drift on the Lena River. This was reported to RIA Novosti on Monday at the Far Eastern Regional Center for Civil Defense and Emergencies. Although the ice drift on the Lena and other rivers of the republic has not yet caused flooding of settlements, experts emphasize that the situation can change in a matter of hours.

Responsibility for the attacks on Sunday morning in Jerusalem was claimed by the military organizations of the Hamas movement - "Izzeddin Al-Kassam Detachments", the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine - "Abu Ali Mustafa Detachments" and Fatah - "Al-Aqsa Detachments".

On Monday in St. Petersburg there was a water supply failure. According to RIA Novosti, traffic was blocked along Dekabristov Street, one of the central streets of St. Petersburg. The press center of the Main Directorate for Civil Defense and Emergencies of St. Petersburg reported that the water supply line broke near the house 27 on Dekabristov Street at about 16.00. As a result of the incident, no one was injured, but a 10 sq. meters. A repair team is on site.

On May 21, the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation will consider the possibility of mitigating the sentences of five convicted of murdering the grandson of the chairman of the board of directors of Lukoil, Alexander Panakov, and the daughter of the dean of the sociological faculty of Moscow State University, Maria Dobrenkova. According to the representatives of the victims, all five convicts applied to the highest court with a request to mitigate the sentence.

In Chechnya, on Monday night, the head of the Vedensky District Department of Internal Affairs, Shahid Muguev, was killed in a clash. This was reported to Interfax by Deputy Prime Minister of the Chechen government Movsar Khamidov, who oversees the work of law enforcement agencies. A clash took place in Vedeno between local police officers and members of illegal armed groups. Muguev received a bullet wound from a Kalashnikov assault rifle.

On Monday, about 50 children were poisoned by an unknown gas at secondary school #2 in the Yashkino district center of the Kemerovo region. According to RIA "Novosti", referring to the press service of the regional administration, all of them were taken to the regional hospital, the condition of the children is assessed as satisfactory.

Russians who already have voluntary civil liability insurance will have to pay extra for a mandatory policy, writes the Vedomosti newspaper . There are 1.5 months left before the start of compulsory third party liability insurance (AGO). As it turned out, Russians who already have voluntary insurance will have to pay extra for their favorite service. True, insurers promise that the rise in price will be minimal.

Patriarch Alexy II of Moscow and All Rus' has been hospitalized again with a diagnosis of a cold, Archpriest Vsevolod Chaplin, deputy chairman of the Department for External Church Relations of the Moscow Patriarchate, told Interfax. "Unfortunately, His Holiness recently suffered a second cold and was hospitalized as a result," said an official representative of the Russian Orthodox Church. According to the agency, Alexy II is now in the Central Clinical Hospital.

The Department for Combating Illicit Drug Trafficking of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine conducted a 10-day raid, during which 35 kilograms of drugs were found in the classrooms of Ukrainian schools, PRIMA reports. On the fact of illegal possession and use of drugs, 340 criminal cases were initiated. According to the head of the department Grigory Shtanko, 117 students were detained right at their desks in a state of drug intoxication.