The State Duma at a plenary session on March 24 will consider amendments to the regulations providing for a special procedure for considering unpromising bills. Oleg Kovalyov, chairman of the State Duma Committee on Regulations and Organization of the Work of the State Duma, announced this on Thursday to RIA Novosti.

Four police officers and a Tajik citizen were detained in the Moscow region while selling a kilogram of heroin. This was reported to RIA "Novosti" by the official representative of the Main Directorate of Internal Security (GUSB) of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia.

Anatoly Goverdovsky, president of the sports commercial organization Russian Club, was shot dead in Astrakhan on Thursday, Rosbalt reports. According to the press service of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia, the crime was committed on the territory of the Refrigeration Equipment plant. The car, in which Goverdovsky and the head of the operational-search department of the regional police department, Colonel Nikolai Abramov, got into, was shot from machine guns.

In the Elbrus region, the machinations of Ukrainian skiers continue for the sixth day, Newsru.com reports with reference to Interfax. "A Ka-32 helicopter overflew the northern and northwestern slopes of Elbrus last Wednesday gave no results. The helicopter will continue to work in the search area on Thursday," a representative of the Ministry of Emergency Situations told the agency. He noted that ground rescue teams from Karachay-Cherkessia, Stavropol, Adygea are searching for tourists.

The jurors left for a meeting to reach a verdict in the case of the murder of State Duma deputy Sergei Yushenkov, RIA Novosti reports. They will have to answer 37 questions about the involvement of the defendants in the murder of Yushenkov, the degree of guilt of each of them, and whether they deserve leniency or not. On the eve of the "last word" at the jury were six defendants in this case. Mikhail Kodanev, Vladislav Palkov and Anton Drozd asked the jury to acquit them.

The Minister of Internal Affairs of Chechnya, Alu Alkhanov, notes a decrease in the number of crimes related to kidnappings. Alkhanov stated this on Thursday in Grozny at the first meeting of the Chechen government with the participation of the new prime minister of the republic, Sergei Abramov, RIA Novosti reports. "Compared to 2003, in the first two months of 2004, the number of abductions decreased three times, from 69 to 19," Alkhanov said.

The Moscow government may sue Vladimir Zhirinovsky and the REN-TV channel if they do not publicly apologize to the city authorities and Yuri Luzhkov personally, Ekho Moskvy reports. According to the press secretary of the Moscow Mayor Sergei Tsoi, and Zhirinovsky, interpreting Luzhkov's trip to Adzharia, distorted the facts.

Information about the termination of the criminal case against businessman Alexander Konanykhin, who is accused of embezzling $8 million from his bank, appeared on Thursday in the media. However, according to RIA Novosti, this information was denied by the Moscow police department.

The Electoral Commission of Primorye has finally approved the results of voting in the presidential elections in the region. As REGNUM was informed in the regional election committee, the official protocol and summary table have already been approved. The commission also considered the entire statement about pressure on voters by the heads of enterprises and educational institutions, and decided to transfer these documents to the prosecutor's office.

neo.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news142.html A small near-Earth asteroid from the discharge of the so-called NEA (Near-Earth Asteroid), which was discovered on Monday night during the implementation of the NASA program, called Linear , will be close to the Earth to the distance ever registered for asteroids. However, there is no danger of a collision with the ground during this rapprochement, as scientists assure. The object is called 2004 FH, its diameter is approximately 30 m.

On Wednesday, the RTS index reached another all-time high, 1.3 points short of the round 700. The MICEX index rose 2.6% and crossed the 600 mark. Analysts believe that buying Russian stocks is becoming more risky every day, however, investors seem to have a different point of view.

On Wednesday, in the State Duma, the response of the First Deputy Prosecutor General of the Russian Federation Yuri Biryukov to a parliamentary request on the progress of the investigation of the terrorist attack on February 6, 2004 in the Moscow Metro, the first deputy prosecutor of the Russian Federation was extended. “In the case,” the letter says, “60 inspections of the bodies of the dead and fragments of human remains were carried out, the identity of 40 dead was established.

Two Mi-8 helicopters with rescuers on board flew out on Thursday in search of a French skier who disappeared a few days ago on her way to the North Pole. Alexander Shesternin, Deputy Head of the Civil Defense and Emergency Department of the Taimyr Autonomous Okrug, informed ITAR-TASS about this.

The Federal Air Transport Agency is most likely to be headed by Nikolai Shipil, director general of the state transport airline Rossiya, RIA Novosti reports. According to the agency's source in the apparatus of the state civil aviation service, an official announcement on this matter is expected "within tomorrow." The former head of the SSCA, Alexander Neradko, headed the Federal Service for Supervision in the Sphere of Transport, which is part of the Ministry of Transport and Communications.

In 2004 Russia plans to open 12 new meteorological stations and 34 stationary posts, as well as to restore the meteorological observation program at three stations in the Chechen Republic. According to RIA Novosti, this was stated in Moscow by the head of Roshydromet, Alexander Bedritsky. According to him, together with the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development, it is also planned to carry out technical re-equipment of all enterprises of Roshydromet.