The issuance of a $1 billion syndicated loan to the Russian oil company Yukos was in jeopardy after the seizure of 44 percent of the company's shares by the Russian Prosecutor General's Office. This was reported to Reuters by London bankers. Yukos managed to get money from seven banks involved in arranging the syndicated loan - Citigroup, Commerzbank, Credit Lyonnais, Deutsche Bank, HSBC, ING Bank Societe Generale.

EU leaders should take advantage with the EU-Russia summit starting next week to signal a united Europe's concern about the latest developments in Chechnya and Ingushetia, Human Rights Watch said today. On November 6, Italy, as the EU Presidency, will host a summit in Rome, which is the biggest event of the half-year in EU-Russia relations.

The Central Election Commission of Russia at a meeting on Friday excluded Vladimir Dubov from the federal list of candidates for the State Duma from United Russia. It is reported by RIA Novosti. A few days ago, by decision of the General Council of the party, the current State Duma deputy from the OER faction, Vladimir Dubov, who was a top manager of Yukos before his election, was excluded from the federal list.

Governor of St. Petersburg Valentina Matviyenko signed a new law "On the government of St. Petersburg", RIA Novosti reports. "Today I signed the law, and tomorrow we intend to publish it," she said. The governor noted that this would make it possible in ten days to approve the candidacies of vice-governors and form a government. "I hope that on November 12, at the next meeting of the legislative assembly, we will be able to nominate candidates for vice-governors," Matviyenko said.

The commission of the Prosecutor General's Office, working in Partizansk at the Tsentralnaya mine, where an explosion recently occurred, came to the conclusion that the mine managers and underground blasting workers were to blame for the tragedy. According to Rosbalt, Deputy Prosecutor General Konstantin Chaika said that violations of security measures at the enterprise were systematically allowed.

A monument to the time lost washing dishes opens in Moscow, the Rockefeller website reports . It can be seen from November 5 to November 30, 2003 at the Okhotny Ryad shopping center on Manezhnaya Square. Sociologists have calculated that washing dishes is one of the biggest household time wasters. A full week of unskilled labor comes up in a year.

Mikhail Kasyanov. Photo from the site www.pravda.ru The Prime Minister of the Russian Federation Mikhail Kasyanov expressed a serious concern with the fact of arrest on the shares of Yukos. It is reported by RIA "Novosti". “I am very deeply preoccupied with this phenomenon. Its consequences are difficult to evaluate. I would even refrain from any assessments,” Kasyanov said in an interview with journalists.

The Central Election Commission published information on the property and income of candidates for State Duma deputies nominated on the federal list of the People's Republican Party of Russia, RIA Novosti reports. The leader of the party, Admiral of the Reserve Eduard Baltin, said that last year his income in the form of a pension amounted to 138,000 rubles.

The Moscow Department of Education did not ban the celebration of Halloween in the capital's schools, we are talking only about recommendations, Larisa Kurneshova, deputy head of the Moscow Department of Education, told Ekho Moskvy. "There has never been any ban - no orders, no instructions," she stressed.

Bryansk customs officers, together with employees of the FSB Department for the Bryansk region, confiscated a whole arsenal of firearms from a 35-year-old citizen of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina. According to a representative of the State Customs Committee of Russia, on the eve of the international automobile checkpoint "Troebortnoye", at the customs post "Sevsky", operatives stopped a car "Volkswagen Passat" driven by a foreigner.

Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon expressed his readiness to enter into negotiations with the head of the Palestinian government, Ahmed Qurei, at any moment, MIGnews reports. Speaking at an economic forum held in Tel Aviv, Sharon said that the lack of dialogue at the highest level between the two sides of the conflict was caused only by the unwillingness and unwillingness of the Palestinian leadership to conduct such negotiations.

The government of Chechnya will be formed within the next week. Chechen President Akhmad Kadyrov announced this on Friday. "On Monday morning I will sign several decrees on the appointment of ministers," Kadyrov said. He stressed that the chairman of the Chechen government, Anatoly Popov, made proposals on the composition of the Cabinet of Ministers. "We discussed them, and I was generally satisfied with the composition recommended by the prime minister," the head of the republic said.

On Friday, a series of terrorist attacks against US troops took place in Iraq, AP reports. The local administration building was blown up in the city of Fallujah, the center of Sunni resistance to US forces. The building is staffed by a mayor and other staff appointed by US representatives. A local resident was killed in the ensuing firefight, civil defense spokesman Ahmed Kalil said. A number of terrorist attacks occurred at night from Thursday to Friday in the suburbs of Mosul.

In Yerevan, there was an accident on the water supply, as a result, several dozen residents of the city fell ill with dysentery. As ARMINFO reports with reference to the words of the head physician of the Nork Infectious Diseases Hospital Ara Asoyan, now the number of patients reaches 43 people. The condition of the patients is moderately mild and moderately severe, none of the patients was placed in intensive care. All patients are residents of the capital communities Center and Arabkir.

Three people died in a fire in a residential wooden house in Novosibirsk. According to the press service of the State Fire Service for the Novosibirsk Region on Friday, a two-story two-entrance residential building in the Leninsky district of the city caught fire on the night of Thursday to Friday, around midnight, ITAR-TASS reports. The incident was reported to the fire department late, as almost all the residents were asleep, and the fire had spread over a large area.