Two Georgian climbers, Zaal Kikodze and Merab Khabazi, who were on the slope of Mount Uzhba for 4 days, died, ITAR-TASS reports with reference to the Rustavi-2 television company, which broadcast a live report from the Mestia region. The bodies, discovered by Georgian rescuers who carried out an operation to rescue the climbers, were taken by helicopter to the regional center of Mestia. According to the agency, another climber, Gela Otarashvili, is walking down the slope with rescuers.

20.07.2005, 19:42:10 version Print | PDA/PDA Dmitry Kozak.

On Wednesday, the former Minister of Railways of the Russian Federation Nikolai Aksenenko died after a long illness, RIA Novosti reports . According to the agency’s interlocutor, Aksenenko recently underwent treatment abroad, the agency’s interlocutor noted. Aksenenko Nikolai Emelyanovich was born on March 15, 1949 in the village of Novoaleksandrovka, Novosibirsk region.

This week the club's management may decide to dismiss general director Yuri Pervak. If Yuri Pervak ​​leaves, Spartak head coach Alexander Starkov will also be on the verge of resignation, Kommersant writes . Before the start of the season, the coaching and management staff of Spartak were given the task of qualifying for the Champions League - that is, taking a place no lower than second in the Russian Championship.

On Wednesday morning, the second Russian observer of elections in the CIS countries, Vladimir Lebedkin, was deported. According to RIA Novosti , he had been in prison since July 9, after he was detained on the border with Transnistria. The second observer, arrested along with Lebedkin, Alexey Kochetkov, was deported to his homeland on July 15. The reason for the detention, according to the Moldovan side, was a fight started by the Russians.

MasterCard Europe analyzed cross-border payments for more than 350 million cards. According to the study, cross-border spending in Europe increased by almost 14 billion euros. At the same time, the volume of online cross-border spending increased by two thirds. Interestingly, Russian residents began to travel and spend more - their spending abroad increased by 38 percent and amounted to 211 million euros, with only 6 million euros spent online. Russian citizens spent the most money in Italy.

The Russian national football team has dropped three positions in the new FIFA rankings and now occupies thirtieth place. The Brazilians are still in the lead, and the German team made the greatest progress due to its successful performance at the Confederations Cup, moving from twenty-first to eleventh place. Under the leadership of Jurgen Klinsmann, the German national team has never risen so high.

Italian Milan striker Andrei Shevchenko, a Ukrainian, said that he has no intention of leaving his current club, despite intensified rumors about his possible move to London's Chelsea. Europe's best footballer confirmed that he had a conversation with Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich, but the topic of his move to London was not raised. “I agreed with Roman Abramovich that in our conversations with him the topic of my move to Chelsea will never be raised.

Vladimir Putin signed a decree on Tuesday appointing General Konstantin Romodanovsky as head of the Federal Migration Service instead of Andrei Chernenko. According to RIA Novosti , the president announced this at a meeting with members of the Council for Promotion of Civil Society Institutions and Human Rights. Before his new appointment, Romodanovsky headed the Main Directorate of Internal Security of the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs.

Prime Minister Mikhail Fradkov ordered the appointment of Sergei Naryshkin, chief of staff of the Russian government, as head of the government commission on administrative reform. According to the RIA Novosti news agency , the former chairman of the commission, Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Zhukov, was removed from its composition.

The carriage that was blown up at London Underground station Edgware Road on July 7 has been recovered, BBC News reports. On Tuesday evening, the damaged subway car, in which 7 people died, was lifted from the tracks using a crane. The car, wrapped in a blue tarpaulin, was taken for examination to one of the police laboratories. The police emphasized that in the interests of the investigation, the exploded carriage remained untouched all this time.

The Pentagon has created the Joint UAV Center of Excellence, reports Defense Industry Daily . This center will concentrate the management and coordination of the work of organizations that create new technologies for UAVs, design bureaus, test centers, organizations that develop tactics for using devices, as well as some management structures of the Ministry of Defense. The center, originally established at Creech Air Force Base, was finally formed at another air base, Fort Rucker.

In St. Petersburg, three trucks loaded with toilet paper were stolen by unknown persons in police uniform. This was reported by the Interfax agency with reference to the Central Internal Affairs Directorate of St. Petersburg and the Leningrad Region. On Wednesday, three truck drivers contacted the duty station of the Gatchina police department.

In the Irkutsk region, a KAVZ bus in which 19 children and two teachers were traveling to a rest home overturned. As the press service of the Russian Ministry of Emergency Situations told the RIA Novosti news agency , 15 children and two adults were injured as a result of the accident. All victims were taken to the nearest hospital. It is reported that the accident occurred 12 kilometers from Bratsk.

Tariffs for cargo transit in the Kaliningrad direction will still be increased. According to the daily newspaper Vremya Novostei , Lithuania has decided to introduce new tariffs on August 15, 2005. Previously, it was assumed that these changes would take place from the beginning of 2005, but the introduction of new tariffs was postponed due to personal contacts between the ministers of transport of Russia and Lithuania.