Colonel Yuri Budanov, serving a ten-year sentence in a maximum security colony for the murder of Chechen Elza Kungaeva, appealed to the Ulyanovsk Regional Court with a petition for early release. This, as Kommersant writes , was reported by the human rights organization Chechen Committee of National Salvation.

At the "Russian auction" of the Christie's auction house, held on November 29 in London, one of the main lots, a Faberge silver watch with diamonds, did not find its buyer, Reuters reports. If sold, the watch, listed at auction with an estimate of 4-6 million pounds sterling ($7.6-11.4 million), could become the most expensive piece of Russian art sold at auction. The record belongs to Faberge's "Winter Egg", sold in 2002 for $9.6 million.

The detention of Belarusian opposition leader Alexander Milinkevich at the Minsk-2 airport may be caused by his inattention, the Kommersant newspaper wrote on Thursday . According to the publication, when the politician flew to Riga for the NATO summit, he mistakenly showed the border guards his son’s passport, which was in Milinkevich’s pocket along with his own document.

A film directed by Oleg Fesenko, “The Witch,” is being released in Russia, which the film’s creators are positioning as the first full-fledged Russian horror film. The plot of the film is based on the famous work of Nikolai Gogol “Viy”, but director Fesenko’s version differs not only in the location of the action, but also in a completely new interpretation. The main events take place not on a Ukrainian farm, but in the USA in our time.

Deputies of the Verkhovna Rada from the Yulia Tymoshenko Bloc (BYuT) blocked the rostrum of the Ukrainian parliament on Thursday after it was decided to entrust the communists with the leadership of the commission to investigate the use of funds received from the sale of the Krivorozhstal plant. As Korrespondent.net writes , just the day before the parliament adopted a resolution on the formation of a Temporary Investigative Commission, which was introduced precisely by deputies from BYuT.

On Wednesday evening, a fire broke out at a large wholesale market in Khasavyurt, the Republic of Dagestan, REGNUM reports citing its own correspondent. As of 1 o'clock on Thursday, two shopping rows were completely burned out. There have been no reports of casualties yet, but local residents are “panicked”, fearing the loss of their property. The flames are spreading very quickly, the agency notes, and neither rescuers nor firefighters have yet arrived at the scene.

The unauthorized burial of five tons of the drug, banned for use in agriculture in the 70s due to its high toxicity, was found in Kamchatka by specialists from the regional department of Rosselkhoznadzor. As RIA Novosti reported on Thursday morning , metal barrels with calcium cyanamide were discovered five kilometers from the village of Central Koryaki in the forest belt of the Elizovsky district, near the river and the water intake of the Ovoshchevod agricultural enterprise.

The Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine received a proposal from Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych to dismiss Foreign Minister Boris Tarasyuk from his post . reports As ProUA with reference to the Chairman of the Parliamentary Committee on State Building Viktor Tikhonov, next week deputies will consider the appeal of the head of government. Four Rada deputies from the Party of Regions faction and one representative of the Communist Party also made a proposal to dismiss Tarasyuk.

This week, the traditional music festival “December Evenings” will begin in the capital; an exhibition of British-American artist John Whistler will open at the Tretyakov Gallery; duduk player Jivan Gasparyan will perform with the Russian National Orchestra. In addition, it will be possible to celebrate the day of the patron saint of Scotland, watch the latest German cinema and a retrospective of films by Krzysztof Kieślowski, and go to the festival of Russian dance theaters.

First Deputy Head of the Far Eastern Customs Administration (FECU) Alexander Vorobyov, detained in May 2006 on charges of abuse of power, was released from custody and released on his own recognizance. As RIA Novosti reported on Thursday , the Primorsky Territory prosecutor's office refused to comment on the change in the preventive measure for Vorobyov, and the head of the Far Eastern Technical University, Ernest Bakhshetsyan, who is involved in the same case, was left in custody.

A two-day auction of the personal belongings of Syd Barrett, the founder of the British band Pink Floyd, who died in the summer of 2006, brought his heirs 121 thousand pounds sterling ($230 thousand). The proceeds from the auction will be donated to the Cambridge University Young Artists Fund, The Independent newspaper reported.

On Wednesday, November 29, 2006, the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine proposed introducing special ratings for evaluating computer and video games, the daily newspaper Novye Izvestia reports. Ministry officials will analyze all games released in the country and ban those that do not meet moral standards (primarily those that include scenes of violence).

The small and little-known Swiss company Center-Tainment intends to announce on November 30 the start of a hostile takeover of Disneyland Paris. The company issued a corresponding press release, MarketWatch reports. Center-Tainment shares are listed on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange. The company is not doing very well - over the past month alone, Center-Tainment's quotes have fallen by almost 40 percent.

Channel Five, broadcasting from St. Petersburg, won a competition in which the Moscow television frequency was exhibited. As stated on the website of the Federal Service for Supervision of Compliance with Legislation in the Sphere of Mass Communications and Protection of Cultural Heritage (Rosokhrankultura), the Federal Competition Commission (FCC) agreed with the concept proposed by the Petersburg TV and Radio Broadcasting Company (Channel Five).

The lower house of the Russian parliament has received a bill that proposes to restore the “against all” column, Rosbalt reports . The initiative was taken by deputies of the Legislative Assembly of the Amur Region.