At the trial in the case of Yuri Budanov on Wednesday, Wednesday, the defendant's lawyer Alexei Dulimov is to speak at the North Caucasus District Court. At the end of the speech of the lawyer, according to the code of criminal procedure, the right of the last word must be given to the defendant. Whether Budanov will use it is not clear. During all the last meetings, he refused to participate in the process, he read a book.

In the Sochi arboretum on Wednesday night, an unknown attacker entered the park and cut down more than a dozen banana trees and yucca. The attacker, judging by the cuts, struck with a very sharp object, director of the arboretum Gennady Solntsev told Interfax. The vandal did not have time to destroy many exotic plants, as he got hurt - traces of blood were found at the scene of the incident, leading to the fence of the arboretum in the direction of nearby barracks.

Kaliningraders will be able to get Polish visas free of charge. As reported on Wednesday in the press service of the regional administration, this decision was made at the last Russian-Polish inter-MFA consultations on consular issues. "For Russian citizens permanently residing in the Kaliningrad region, a simplified procedure for issuing visas is provided.

Two American soldiers were killed in Iraq on Wednesday. According to Reuters, one of them died after two military vehicles were blown up by a mine near the city of Mosul. Seven more soldiers were injured. The second incident occurred near the city of Ramadi. The American convoy came under fire, as a result of which one person was killed and two more were injured. Meanwhile, Al-Arabiya, an Arab broadcaster, aired a recording of a voice allegedly belonging to Saddam Hussein today.

The Basmanny Court of Moscow postponed to July 30 the consideration of the complaint of the Yukos-Moscow company against the actions of the Prosecutor General's Office during a search in the company's archive. According to RIA "Novosti", the court adjourned the meeting due to the fact that the Prosecutor General's Office did not provide some documents, in particular, the protocol on the search.

Russian Interior Minister Boris Gryzlov did not confirm to reporters on Wednesday about a serial killer operating in the north and northeast of Moscow and killing women. "The serial nature of these murders is not confirmed. There are no signs confirming that the murders were committed by one person or a group of persons," Gryzlov said. The head of the Ministry of Internal Affairs said that the murder of a woman committed on July 19 in the forest had already been solved.

Three workers were injured in an explosion at AvtoVAZ. According to the regional department of the state fire service, the incident occurred on Tuesday during repair work in the thermal shop of the plant. The causes of the explosion have not yet been established, but it is known that explosives are used in the process. Firefighters suspect that an incorrectly installed fan brushed the metal casing of the air duct with its blades and caused a spark. The fire was avoided.

From July 25, 1st Tverskaya-Yamskaya Street will be closed in Moscow at night from 22.00 to 6.00. This was reported to RIA Novosti on Wednesday by a spokesman for the Moscow traffic police. "In connection with the overhaul of the road surface from Friday, July 25, traffic will be blocked along 1st Tverskaya-Yamskaya Street in the section from Tverskaya Zastava Square to Triumfalnaya Square," the traffic police spokesman said. The ban will be in effect until August 8.

Grigory Krichevsky. Photo from the site www.kommersant.ru In the fall, a round -the -clock Russian information channel will appear on the television market with the participation of state structures. One of the participants in this project will be the VGTRK. This is reported on Wednesday by Kommersant. According to the publication, the idea of ​​creating the Russian analogue of CNN, the chairman of the VGTRK, Oleg Dobroduev, was still working on NTV-since the mid-90s.

The population of Russia will decrease by 18% by 2050 to 119.1 million people from the current 145.5 million people, according to a report by the American organization Population Reference Bureau . According to the report, every year 10 people are born and 16 people die for every thousand inhabitants of Russia. Thus, the natural decline in the country's population is 0.7%. The average life expectancy in Russia is 65 years. At the same time, men, on average, live 59 years, and women - 72 years.

Valentin Danilov. Photo from the site www.lenta.ru The Supreme Court of the Russian Federation on Wednesday satisfied the cassation appeal of the prosecutor's office of the Krasnoyarsk Territory in the case of physicist Valentin Danilov, accused of espionage in favor of China. Thus canceled The decision of the Krasnoyarsk Regional Court of May 16, 2003 on the return of the case to the prosecutor's office to disdain the indictment.

Two US soldiers were killed and eight others injured in two attacks on US troops in Iraq on Wednesday. This was reported by Reuters, citing an American military representative. One American was killed near the city of Ramadi, west of Baghdad. Another American soldier was killed and six were injured in a bomb blast in the city of Mosul in northern Iraq. As a result, since the official announcement of the end of large-scale hostilities in Iraq, 41 American and six British soldiers have died.

In Moscow, unknown people attacked the accountant of one of the commercial banks, the capital's police department reported. The crime was committed the day before near house number 8 on Vishnevsky Street. "Two unknown criminals hit a bank representative on the head and snatched from him a bag containing 3.5 million rubles," the police said. At present, from the words of the victim, sketches of robbers have been compiled, which have been transferred to all police departments of the city.

Ricardo Sanchez. Photo by ar American troops captured on Wednesday one of the high -ranking supporters of the Saddam Hussein regime. As Reuters reports, referring to the statement of Lieutenant General Ricardo Sanchez, this person is number 11 in the list of 55 Iraqis looking for the Americans. Sanchez did not name the name of the captured.

In Veliky Novgorod, prosecutors and police officers revealed a group of "werewolves". Colonel Anatoly Zhuravlev, head of the Novgorod Oblast Internal Affairs Directorate, told RIA Novosti that on July 21, Captain Dmitry Borisov, deputy head of the department of the forensic center of the Internal Affairs Directorate, who had served in the Ministry of Internal Affairs for more than ten years, was detained.