The United States is not going to create a military base in Tajikistan. newspaper According to the Kommersant , US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice stated this. “We have no intention of having a military base in Tajikistan,” she said after talks with Tajik President Emomali Rakhmonov. “We are not trying to increase our military presence anywhere.

A mysterious candidate has entered the race for the French presidency, the Guardian reports. On Thursday, October 13, the candidate for world leadership published a manifesto. It begins with the words "I'm coming. Everything is much worse than you think" and is devoted to criticism of the actions of the government and the opposition.

Rome's Pontifical Regina Apostolorum University has launched a four-month course on "Exorcism and Prayer for Deliverance" to address the shortage of exorcism specialists in the Catholic Church. According to Reuters, 120 theologians and priests from around the world showed interest in such an unusual profession. In four months they will have to learn everything about the manifestations of Satanism and possession by the devil.

On Friday evening at Moscow's Domodedovo airport, passengers outraged by the delay of the flight to Magadan blocked the boarding gate, the Ekho Moskvy radio station reports . The Magadan Airlines plane was supposed to take off on Tuesday at 19:10, but has not yet taken off. According to the airport's website, the estimated take-off time of the Il-62M is 19:10 on Saturday, October 15.

In St. Petersburg, activists of military history clubs restored the T-60 tank from the Great Patriotic War, reports the Vesti program of the Rossiya TV channel. It was assembled from the wreckage of several cars of this type, discovered in the Leningrad region. Some parts and fragments of the structure had to be re-manufactured according to the drawings that survived the war.

Everyone knows how the British honor their monarchical system, how tenderly and reverently they treat their rulers, and how they worry when some Camilla Parker-Bowles dares to “infiltrate” the royal family. Everyone remembers how the Windsors, regardless of the feelings of Princess Diana, forced Prince Harry to donate blood for a DNA test - he seemed too red-haired and unlike his father.

The head of the Ukrainian government, Yuriy Yekhanurov, said that the Pension Fund deficit is 2.8 billion hryvnia (about 5 billion rubles), Korrespondent.net reports . Speaking on the Ukrainian TV channel Inter on Thursday evening, Yekhanurov explained that there is not enough money due to the fact that pensions were increased without providing sufficient funds in the state budget to finance them.

According to updated data, as of Thursday evening there were 103 wounded in Nalchik hospitals, Interfax reports , citing a representative of the Ministry of Health of Kabardino-Balkaria. The wounded included 71 law enforcement officials, 31 civilians and one suspected militant who was under guard, he said. All victims in hospitals were transported there by Thursday evening. No new wounded were admitted to hospitals on Friday night, a Health Ministry spokesman said.

Militant detachments attacked Nalchik during a large-scale anti-terrorist operation throughout Kabardino-Balkaria. According to the RIA Novosti news agency , Russian President Vladimir Putin was informed about this on October 14 by the head of the country's Ministry of Internal Affairs, Rashid Nurgaliev, reporting on the events in Nalchik. According to the minister, the anti-terrorist operation in the republic has been going on since October 10.

Ukrainian oligarchs agree to pay extra for enterprises purchased earlier at reduced prices. This was stated by the country's Prime Minister Yuri Yekhanurov, who emphasized that the authorities do not intend to accuse entrepreneurs of stealing state property. “They worked in conditions of reduced competition and will have to pay extra for the acquired enterprises,” Korrespondent.net quotes the prime minister as saying .

A doctor who was once a patient of al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden is participating in a rescue operation in earthquake-ravaged areas of Pakistan, the Associated Press reports. British-trained Pakistani orthopedic surgeon Amer Aziz runs a field hospital set up in Kashmir by the Islamic charity Jamat-e-Dawad. A representative of the organization, Yahaya Mujihad, told the agency about this. “Our people also help those who suffered in the Indian part of Kashmir,” Mujihad noted.

The draw for the play-offs of the 2006 World Cup qualifying tournament in the European zone took place at the UEFA headquarters. According to its results, the Slovak team will play with the Spanish team, the Czech team will compete with the Norwegian team, and the Turkish team will play with the Swiss team.

The Russian government has approved a bill to abolish arrests as a form of punishment, the daily newspaper Rossiyskaya Gazeta reports . We are talking about arrests for two to three months for minor crimes, a kind of analogue of the traditional “15 days” for hooliganism. The bill does not affect arrest as a type of pre-trial detention during trial and investigation. It was decided that arrest was too severe a punishment.

Chief policy adviser, George W. Bush's "right hand" and "brains" and "architect of both of his presidential campaigns" Karl Rove appeared on Friday, October 14, for the fourth time before a grand jury investigating the leak of information from White House. According to the AP, this is the last chance for Rove to prove that he was not involved in the declassification of a secret CIA agent.

The former head of YUKOS, Mikhail Khodorkovsky, is currently in a pre-trial detention center in Saratov, where he is undergoing quarantine. According to the Interfax agency , this was reported by a source in law enforcement agencies of the Volga Federal District. After passing quarantine, Khodorkovsky will be sent to serve his sentence in one of the colonies.