Texas police have arrested a group of pacifist protesters camped out near George W. Bush's ranch in Crawford, AP reports. At the same time, the police were guided by a recently adopted local law prohibiting the erection of tents and living in cars near the roads. The demonstrators intended to ruin George W. Bush's Thanksgiving holiday, which he was soon planning to celebrate with his family at his Texas ranch.

One of the former vice-presidents of the Russian oil company Yukos, Mikhail Elfimov, asked for political asylum in Latvia. As reported by Interfax with reference to the newspaper Dienas Bizness, this was announced by the press secretary of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Republic Krist Leishkalns. Elfimov appealed to the Latvian authorities with a request to grant him political asylum, the press secretary said.

The famous tuning studio Hartge presented another original development - the BMW 3-Series sedan, equipped with an engine from the latest generation of the BMW M5 supercar. This car received its own name Hartge H50 V10, and it will be produced exclusively for individual orders. Before installing the powerful V10 engine under the hood of the BMW 3-Series, Hartge specialists boost it to 550 horsepower instead of the base 507.

The Australian government has announced its intention to sell its 51.8 percent stake in Australia's largest telecommunications company Telstra. Australian Prime Minister John Howard promised to make the final decision on the choice and format of placement of the stake early next year, Bloomberg reports . The government's Telstra shares currently have a market value of $18.4 billion. Telstra's share market value has fallen by about a fifth in nine months this year.

The Russian fishing seiner Rybak is in distress in the Sea of ​​Okhotsk, Interfax reports . According to the Sakhalin Fleet Monitoring Service, the first distress signal transmitted from the Rybak board was recorded at 01:25 Thursday local time (18:25 Moscow time Wednesday). Since then, the seiner's radio beacon has been automatically sending distress signals via satellite for more than 10 hours.

The US Navy command sent a flotilla of warships to support the operation to eliminate the consequences of hurricanes Katrina and Rita, reports Strategy Page . Among them will be six minesweepers, whose task will be to clear rivers and shipping channels of debris. The fact is that garbage interferes with shipping. Sometimes quite large objects float in rivers - boats, logs, wooden parts of buildings.

On Tuesday, a scientific conference dedicated to electromagnetic weapons will be held in the United States. It will discuss the possibility of creating a bomb capable of destroying electrical appliances throughout the entire country, reports La Stampa . The action of such a bomb is based on high-power electromagnetic pulses. The bomb will contain a powerful source of microwave radiation, which will be able to “irradiate” a large area.

Former German Chancellor Gerhard Schröder took a job at the largest Swiss publishing house Ringier AG . According to a press release posted on the publishing house's website, from January 2006 Schroeder will become an adviser to the head of the publishing house, Michael Ringier, on international policy issues.

Former like-minded people of Dmitry Rogozin in the Rodina (People's Patriotic Union) electoral bloc intend to file a lawsuit demanding that his party be banned from using the name Rodina, RIA Novosti reports . The decision on this was made on November 24 at a meeting of the Supreme Council of the electoral bloc, as the meeting participants called themselves.

The court stopped the criminal prosecution of members of the extremist community "Schultz-88" under Article 282 of the Criminal Code (participation in an extremist community) due to the expiration of the statute of limitations. this to the Kommersant newspaper. State prosecutor Alexei Bundin reported Now the prosecutor just has to ask the court to find the group members guilty of inciting hatred or hostility on racial or national grounds, the publication notes.

The relevant committee of the European Parliament on Thursday approved rules for telecommunications companies obliging them to store data on all telephone conversations of subscribers and their Internet correspondence for six months, Reuters reports. The rules were approved by a vote of 33 committee members to 8. A vote by the full House is scheduled for December. It is noted that the draft document is most actively supported by representatives of the UK.

Insurance company Norwich Union has published the results of a synthesis study it carried out based on various reports on the extent of different types of fraud in the UK. According to the company's calculations, in 2004, economic losses from fraud amounted to 15.8 billion pounds sterling, writes BBC News . In total, according to the company, fraud losses amount to 1.4 percent of GDP per year, or £650 per household.

The Moscow City Court refused to accept Viktor Shenderovich’s statement of claim, in which he demanded to cancel the registration of Stanislav Govorukhin as a candidate for State Duma deputy. According to the press secretary of the Moscow City Court, Anna Usacheva, the reason for refusing to consider the claim was that it falls within the competence of the district court, RIA Novosti reports .

St. Petersburg Zenit won its second victory in the group stage of the UEFA Cup. On their field at the Petrovsky Stadium, Vlastimil Petrzhela's team beat the Spanish Sevilla with a score of 2:1. Alexander Kerzhakov scored both goals for Zenit, and Javier Saviola scored for Sevilla. After this victory, the St. Petersburg team took the lead in Group N with 6 points.

General Director for Production and Technical Support of Mittal Steel Narendri Choderi said that the company will transfer half of the funds for the Krivorozhstal metallurgical plant to the account of the State Property Fund of Ukraine by November 28, Ukrayinska Pravda reports . The remaining half will be transferred within a month after November 28th. The money will be pre-converted into hryvnia.