Smog. Picture from the site www.niehs.nih.gov Since 2005, Russian automobile plants will be ready to switch to the production of cars corresponding to the international environmental standards "Euro-2". This was announced by RIA "Novosti" Deputy Director of the Department of Industry of the Ministry of Industry, Nikolai Sorokin. The heads of technical services and automobile plants are completing work on preparing the transition to this standard, Sorokin assured.

Vladimir Zhirinovsky. Photo from the site www. Media.ping-ua.com The Vice Speaker of the State Duma of Russia Vladimir Zhirinovsky said on Thursday that the Parliamentary faction of the LDPR in full force would sit on boats and go to rest in Abkhazia, NTV reports.

Traffic light in London. Photo from Metadyne.tripod.com The world's first electrical traffic lights regulating the road traffic were installed 90 years ago, on August 5, 1914, at the intersection of Avenue Euclid and the 105th East Street in Cleveland (Ohio). They switched from red to green light and made a warning sound signal. There was no yellow on a traffic light.

At a meeting in the Meshchansky Court of Moscow on Friday, the defendant - the head of "MENATEP" Platon Lebedev - said that the diary, excerpts from which were announced at the trial, was not his. Excerpts from the diary for 1997, found during a search in the office of the bank "MENATEP", were read out in court by state prosecutor Dmitry Shokhin on Monday and Tuesday. Shokhin did not say who owns this diary. Later, some media reported that the diary belongs to Lebedev.

Congress of the CPSU. Photo from the site www.aleho.narod.ru The deputies from United Russia, together with Vladimir Zhirinovsky, introduced a draft law into the State Duma to the State Duma, allowing government members to occupy the highest party posts. The bill changes Art. 11 of the Law "On the Government", writes " Gazeta ".

Bobby Fisher. Photo by ar The former world chess championship Bobby Fisher is going to abandon American citizenship, the Air Force reports. This was announced by lawyer Masako Suzuki, representing the interests of a chess player arrested on July 13 in Tokyo. According to the lawyer, Fisher called the US diplomatic mission in Japan and announced his intention to abandon US citizenship. Suzuki will transmit the request of Fisher in writing to the US Embassy.

Minister of Sports of Belarus Yuri Sivakov was not given an entry visa to Greece, AP reports citing the Greek Foreign Ministry. The European Union is due to make an official statement on the matter on Friday. The reason for the refusal is the alleged involvement of Sivakov in the disappearance of Belarusian opposition leaders in 1999 and 2000. Then the Minister of Sports was the head of the Ministry of the Interior.

Four people were injured in Moscow on Friday as a result of a traffic accident with a fixed-route taxi. As reported to Interfax in the traffic police of the capital, at about 16.40 near the house # 21 on Nizhniye Mnevniki Street, a passenger car and a fixed-route taxi "Gazelle" collided.

The Russian government has approved new rules for paying for housing and utilities, PRIME-TASS reports. According to the Department of Government Information, the rules define the procedure and conditions for payment of non-privatized apartments, as well as private housing in apartment buildings where associations of owners (partnerships and cooperatives) have not been created.

The Volga-Ural Regional Center of the Ministry of Emergency Situations published a list of victims of the Mi-8 helicopter crash that occurred in the Tyumen region on Thursday. It is reported by Gazeta.Ru with reference to Interfax. Among the dead were three crew members: crew commander Sergei Alekseev, flight engineer Maxim Kuzin and flight mechanic Sergei Vorobyov.

Cheburashka, Shapoklyak and crocodile ride. Picture from the site www.bibliogid.ru The State Duma deputy from the Rodina party, Alexander Krutov, developed a protocol order by the relevant committees of the State Duma, in which he demands to "analyze the decision of the Russian Olympic Committee that Cheburashka became a symbol of the Russian team." According to RIA Novosti, the order was adopted on Thursday at the end of the plenary meeting of the chamber.

Muranovo. Photo from the site www.museum.ru Tyutchevsk hills, located in the immediate vicinity of the Muranovo estate in the suburbs, are going to build up cottages, the newspaper reports. Announcements for the sale of plots on the hills located on the opposite from the estate of the Talitsa River, appeared in advertising newspapers in February. The former state farm lands belonging to the APF 'May' CJSC are officially sold.

UN Special Envoy to Sudan Jan Pronk said he had agreed with Sudanese Foreign Minister Mustafa Oman Ismail on further steps to overcome the crisis in Darfur. Pronk added that, in his opinion, the Security Council would not have to take preventive measures against Khartoum. Last week, the Security Council approved a resolution giving Khartoum a month to achieve concrete results in disarming the militias. Earlier this week, UN humanitarian agencies began delivering food aid to needy Darfurians.

In the Naursky district of Chechnya, militants abducted four local residents, including a police officer. This was reported to RIA "Novosti" in the joint press center of the Regional Operational Headquarters (ROSH) for managing the counter-terrorist operation in the North Caucasus. "The day before, in the village of Mekenskaya, Naur district, four local residents were abducted, including one employee of the Naur district police department," the agency's interlocutor said.

Representatives of the South Ossetian government claim that the Georgian side is setting up mortar positions on the bypass road around Tskhinvali along the Eredvi-Dzartsemi section, Interfax reports. "Eight additional mortar points have been equipped by the Georgian side since the beginning of this week on the bypass road around Tskhinvali along the Eredvi-Dzartsemi section," Irina Gagloyeva, chairman of the press and information committee of South Ossetia, said from Tskhinvali.