Two screenwriters who co-wrote the script for Yamakasi: the modern-day samurai with Luc Besson filed a lawsuit in Paris on Friday to stop the film's scheduled April 4 release. Luc Besson acted in this project as a screenwriter and producer.

Anatoly Bykov's lawyer, Genrikh Padva, filed a petition on Thursday with the prosecutor's office of the North-Western Administrative District of Moscow to terminate the criminal case against his client "for lack of evidence of participation in the crime." Padva himself reported this to RIA Novosti.

Four more Finnish skiers were found using illegal drugs during the World Championships in Lahti. These are Harri Kirvisniemi, Mika Myllyly, Virpi Kuitunen and Milla Jauho. If the information released by the Finnish agency STT/FNB is confirmed, the Russian team could receive another gold medal, as Kuitunen beat second place Larisa Lazutina in the pursuit. Suomi skiers underwent doping tests at the insistence of the Finnish Ski Association.

Players of the Dutch Meeden youth team must sign a contract prohibiting obscene language on the field. They sign this contract before they even start training. Future football players undertake to treat referees and referees with respect, Ananova.com reports. Athletes are prohibited from swearing at other players and offending the feelings of spectators.

On Thursday in Hanoi, Russian President Vladimir Putin met with Vietnamese leader Tran Duc Luong. As a result of the negotiations, an agreement was signed to settle Vietnam's debt to Russia. As Russian Deputy Prime Minister Viktor Khristenko told Interfax, the Vietnamese debt repayment scheme provides for annual payments of about $100 million. The rest will be repaid in goods and investments in joint ventures.

The investigation into the criminal case of the murder of the famous television journalist Vladislav Listyev does not stop for a single day. Vladimir Lyseiko, head of the Department for Investigation of Particularly Important Cases of the Russian General Office, stated this to RIA Novosti.

On Thursday in Moscow, a 12-year-old schoolboy was seriously injured as a result of an icicle falling from the roof of a house, ITAR-TASS reports with reference to the Health Committee. At about 6:00 p.m., a block of ice fell on the head of a boy who was walking along Lomonosovsky Prospekt. As a result, the victim received a concussion and was hospitalized in one of the city hospitals.

The President of the Federal Notary Chamber, Anatoly Tikhenko, was killed in Moscow. As Interfax was told by law enforcement agencies, the crime was committed on Wednesday around midnight. The killer shot Tikhenko with two pistols as he entered the entrance of his house on Begovaya Street. The notary received five gunshot wounds and died on the spot. The killer escaped. The operatives found two pistols abandoned by the criminal in the entrance: a TT 7.62 mm caliber and a PM with a silencer.

Marat Safin successfully completed the second round of the tennis tournament in Dubai. The Russian, seeded number one, who did not start the season very well, beat the Frenchman Julien Boutte - 7:5, 7:6. But Yevgeny Kafelnikov lost to Swede Thomas Johansson - 6:7, 5:7 and dropped out of the fight.

Last night, domestic gas exploded in a three-story residential building in the city of Pionersky, Kaliningrad region. As ITAR-TASS was informed by the regional department of civil defense and emergency situations, the explosion occurred around midnight. Its epicenter was in the kitchen of one of the apartments - according to preliminary data, the drunken owner forgot to turn off the gas stove.

On Thursday, Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights Alvaro Gil-Robles returned to Moscow from a trip to Chechnya and told Interfax that he believes it is necessary to “use the full force of the law against human rights violations in Chechnya.” At the same time, Gil-Robles noted that he calls for a fight against crimes “related to the violation of human rights in Chechnya both against the civilian population and military personnel” of the federal forces.

In the north of Moscow, 70 people suspected of fraud were detained. ITAR-TASS was informed about this by the press service of the Central Regional Directorate for Combating Organized Crime of the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs. Among the detainees are residents of Ukraine, Dagestan and Russia. The police found these people, working on numerous complaints from citizens who had lost money while playing a fraudulent lottery.

After chemically analyzing the contents of clay pipes dug up in the garden of Shakespeare's house in Stratford-on-Avon, South African scientists discovered traces of marijuana in them. As Francis Thackeray, head of the paleontological department of the Transvaal Museum, says in the pages of the South African Journal of Science, they came to the idea of ​​conducting this research after re-reading the works of the great playwright from a new angle.

In Moscow, an attack was carried out on the deputy chief physician for the economic department of the emergency room of the 67th city hospital, Alexander Ilyin. As Interfax was told by the capital's police department, at about 3:30 p.m. an unknown person entered Ilyin's office, shot him with an underwater gun and disappeared. The arrow pierced the man's jaw. Ilyin’s colleagues came to the rescue and urgently took the victim to the operating room.

The investigation into the attempt on the life of Kemerovo Region Governor Aman Tuleyev will end on May 5. The prosecutor of the department for supervision of the investigation of particularly important cases of the regional prosecutor's office, Konstantin Antokhov, told Interfax about the intention of the prosecutor's office of the Novosibirsk region to complete the investigation by this date. According to him, the question of prolonging the case is no longer on the table.