Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki said that his country is ready to invest up to a billion dollars in various projects in Iraq, AFP reports. “We are developing several projects in the field of oil production, electrification, construction of hospitals,” Mottaki said during a visit to Najaf.

The Georgian Foreign Ministry expressed protest in connection with the violation of Georgian airspace by Russia. As stated in a statement by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Georgia, cited by RIA Novosti , on May 25 at 11:24 a.m., a Russian aircraft violated Georgian airspace and penetrated 20 kilometers deep into the territory of the republic north-west of the village of Java in Samachablo (zone of the Georgian-Ossetian conflict), which was recorded by the Georgian radar system.

Detentions of participants in the rally in defense of the rights of sexual minorities, which takes place in the capital on Saturday, May 27, have begun in Moscow. According to RIA Novosti , more than 50 participants of the event have already been arrested. According to some reports, among those detained is the organizer of the action, Nikolai Alekseev.

The number of earthquake victims in Indonesia has exceeded 2,700 people, AFP reports. According to eyewitnesses, the earthquake destroyed several settlements on the island of Java, and entire areas were destroyed in the city of Yogyakarta, located approximately 25 kilometers from the epicenter of the earthquake. Rescuers and volunteers continue to work in the ruins. According to the order of the country's president, military personnel should soon be sent to help them.

On Saturday, in the center of Moscow on Tverskaya Street, opposite the city hall building, a black French citizen, Pierre Ern, was beaten, Interfax reports . As the capital's law enforcement agencies clarified, the incident occurred around 16:30. The foreigner was attacked by young people, presumably skinheads, who were waiting for participants in a banned gay pride parade.

A powerful earthquake on the Indonesian island of Java injured hundreds of people and killed at least five, Agence France Presse reported on Saturday morning. The Yogyakarta police cannot yet name the exact number of victims of the earthquake, as data from different areas continues to arrive. The power of the tremors was 5.9 on the Richter scale. The epicenter of the earthquake, recorded by instruments at about 5:53 am local time (2:53 Moscow time), was located 37 kilometers from Yogyakarta.

27.05.2006, 22:20:54 version Print | PDA/PDA Window on Tverskaya Street, photo by Lyubov Kulkova, Lenta.Ru Secret Parade Report from an unauthorized international march of gay activists in Moscow The gay pride parade in Moscow was announced in July 2005 . In May 2006, to which he was appointed, a series of gay pogroms took place in the capital; Moscow Mayor Yuri Luzhkov stated that he would never give permission for the parade; global human rights activists were outraged by this .

The Greek Ministry of Defense has banned US Air Force aircraft from conducting training flights over the islands of the Cretan and Aegean Seas, AFP reports. A Defense Department spokesman explained that this was done because the American aircraft "violated aviation regulations" and, in particular, did not inform local authorities in advance about their exercises.

During his visit to Poland, Pope Benedict XVI expressed hope that his predecessor, John Paul II, will soon be canonized, AFP reports. “I would like to say that I hope that Providence will soon bring us the beatification of John Paul II and then the sainthood,” Benedict XVI said in Italian during a visit to the Kalwaria monastery near Krakow.

On Saturday, May 27, the Moscow police were transferred to an enhanced duty regime in connection with the upcoming procession of sexual minorities in the capital. Please note that the organizers did not receive permission to hold the event. As told RIA Novosti the head of the information and public relations department of the Moscow Main Internal Affairs Directorate, Evgeny Gildeev, , reinforced police units will be on duty on the central streets of the city to prevent possible unrest.

One of the twenty victims at the hands of a Berlin teenager died the night before, four more are in serious condition, France Presse reported on Saturday. At about 23:30 local time (01:30 Saturday Moscow time), when residents of the German capital were leaving after fireworks in honor of the opening of Europe's largest railway station, a young man began running through the crowd, stabbing at random with a knife. The police managed to arrest the attacker.

On Saturday, May 27, a Mi-2 helicopter with six passengers crashed in the Krasnodar region. As a result of the accident, the pilot was killed and three people were hospitalized. As reported to RIA Novosti by the press service of the Southern Regional Center of the Ministry of Emergency Situations of the Russian Federation, the incident occurred at 16:38 Moscow time, 30 kilometers northeast of Belorechensk (Krasnodar Territory).

Severstal will remain a Russian company and a legal entity registered in Russia, despite the merger with the European steel company Arcelor. reported this RIA Novosti from a press conference by the chairman of the board of directors of the company, Alexei Mordashov. According to him, the company's tax payments will also be made in Russia. Control over the company remains with Russian management and it retains its obligations under investment plans and social programs.

The death toll from the earthquake on the Indonesian island of Java has exceeded 2,500 people, AP reports. Several thousand people were injured in various ways. As journalists report, as a result of the tremors, hundreds of houses collapsed in the city of Yogyakarta and other affected communities. As rescuers inspect the ruins, more and more victims of the earthquake are becoming known. So far, according to official data, 2,517 people have died.

On Friday, the nuclear submarine missile carrier of the Northern Fleet of the Russian Navy "Ekaterinburg" successfully launched a ballistic missile from the Barents Sea, RIA Novosti reports . As the Mission Control Center (MCC) said, the rocket will launch the artificial earth satellite "Compass-2" into low-Earth orbit.