Five Japanese, abducted by DPRK intelligence and living there, as expected, will be able to come to Japan for two weeks, before the negotiations of Tokyo and Pyongyang about the establishment of diplomatic ties. According to Reuters, negotiations are scheduled for October 29-30 and will be held in Kuala Lumpur. As already reported, the cause of death in the DPRK eight of the thirteen Japanese, stolen in the 1970s and 80s of the North Korean intelligence, were illnesses and natural disasters.

From the second quarter of 2003, new excise stamps for alcohol will be introduced in Russia. According to the Deputy Prime Minister of the Russian Federation Alexei Gordeev, this will allow a third to reduce the volume of illegal circulation of alcoholic beverages.

The fundamentalist group of Islam ("Ansar al-Islam"), based in Iraqi Kurdistan, left half of its members. About this, as the correspondent of RIA Novosti reports, the Iraqi newspaper Babil reported on Wednesday. According to the newspaper, 150 members of the Islam Champions group went over to the side of the Islamic Organization √ the third most important (after the Kurdistan Democratic Party √ DPK and the National NSC National Union √ NSC) of political force in Iraqi Kurdistan.

The number of those who bypass meat shops grows in Europe. According to the latest EURISPES data, in less than three years the number of vegetarians in Italy, for example, increased from one and a half million people, writes La Repubblica . For the most part, the publication notes, these are the so -called "incomplete" vegetarians consuming dairy products, eggs and fish. They have a rather specific approach to nutrition, nevertheless, they constitute a social group that is respected.

The Barcelona court freed from custody of three of the seven young people aged 18 to 20 years old, who systematically beat disabled and helpless old people at night, shooting the scenes of beating on the video cameras, RIA Novosti reports. The gang of "golden youth", immigrants from wealthy families, among whom was one girl, went to business at night in the Knou Barris area, as a rule, in a state of alcohol and narcotic intoxication.

Moscow Mayor Yuri Luzhkov actively joined the conflict around the Moscow oil refinery. He accused the Sibneft’s oil company of trying to capture the Moscow oil product market. “Sibneft, standing behind the company, Mr. Abramovich wants to capture the Moscow oil product market. I emphasize, it is to capture,” Interfax quoted the words.

Vladimir Putin presented on Wednesday in the Kremlin the highest state awards to the military, as well as leaders of science and culture of Russia.

According to the preliminary version, an explosion and a fire on the French Tanker "Limburg" near Yemen on October 6 were a consequence of the attack, most likely, committed by the Sea Jihad group, which is part of Al-Qaeda. The French and Yemeni investigators discovered in the skin of a tanker, caught on October 6 on the traverse of the Daba port in the Gulf of Aden, a large hole.

The fact that the government is trying to sell Slavneft is known for a long time. However, earlier it was about 20% of the shares, and now, according to Vedomosti , officials are ready to sell the entire state -package - and this is almost 75% of the shares. According to a newspaper from government sources, the project was hastily entered into the government last Friday - so that the shares could be sold before the end of the year.

Pakistan decided to place on the border with Afghanistan from 800 to 1 thousand Italian mountain rangers for a period of 6 months to combat al-Qaeda militants, ITAR-TASS reports. As News newspaper said today with reference to an unassumed high -ranking source, Islamabad agreed with the demand of Washington to use Italian alpine shooters in the mountainous areas of mountainous areas to control paths and passes.

North Ossetia President Alexander Dzasokhov reported to the President of Russia that, as expected, an agreement between Northern Ossetia-Alania and Ingushetia will be signed in October. “We take obligations to the president and our peoples to build good -neighborly relations on a long -term basis,” said the head of North Ossetia at a meeting with the President of Russia on Wednesday in the Kremlin. "We are already a stone's throw from that" to sign this agreement, Dzasokhov noted.

In the new season in the National Hockey League, Alexei Zhamnov will be taken to the ice in the National Hockey League. This decision was announced the day before by the head coach of the Black Hawks Brian Satter. The 32-year-old Russian legionnaire replaced Tony Amonte in this post, who signed a contract with the Phoenix Coyotes in this summer. It is noteworthy that Alexey hit Chicago in 1996 from the Phoenix. Zhamnov is the third in the list of veterans of the club.

The Communist Deputy Vasily Shandybin at a meeting of the State Duma on Wednesday suggested that the head of the Ministry of Economic Development of Herman Gref and his deputy Andrei Sharonov “for betrayal of the Motherland” proposed to arrest the head of the plenary meeting.

The State Duma at a meeting on Wednesday adopted in the first reading the draft federal law "On state regulation of prices (tariffs) for goods (services) of natural monopolies." According to RIA Novosti , 387 deputies voted in support of the law, and only one against it. This bill is essentially an addition to the Federal Law "On Natural Monopoly".

The State Duma speaker, the leader of the Russian Renaissance Party, Gennady Seleznev, did not exclude that the party he head could withdraw from the People's-Patriotic Union of Russia. The speaker said on Wednesday to reporters that this could happen if the NPSR was not "noted" from the statements of Alexander Prokhanov.