For trips to Latvia after May 1, Russians will need to additionally issue an invitation and medical insurance to receive a visa to this country. These changes are provided for by the new Latvian law entering into force on May 1 on the procedure for entering the country of foreigners, the Embassy of Latvia in Moscow said. According to this law, foreign tourists must issue an invitation confirmed by the Office for Citizenship and Latvia Migration Department to receive a Latvian visa.

After an unsuccessful performance in the playoffs, the Russian super-leagues "Avangard" began to leave leading hockey players. These were the Czechs of Irji Schlegr and Martin Prokhazki, as well as Russian Ilya Biakin. 40-year-old defender Byakin-Olympic champion-88 and world champion 1989, 1990 and 1993. 32-year-old defender Schlegr-winner of the Olympiad-98, and 31-year-old Prokhazka-world champion 1999, 2000 and 2001.

Five more residents of Hong Kong died on Thursday from atypical pneumonia. Thus, the total number of victims of this terrible infectious disease in the city reached 162 people. According to the Department of Health, the alleged new patients with a diagnosis of atypical pneumonia were accepted today in Hong Kong hospitals, ITAR-TASS reports. At the same time, on May 1, 43 people were discharged from the hospitals, which is almost four times the number of new patients.

The official representative of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation Alexander Yakovenko said that the school students at the Russian embassy in China are recommended to pass exams ahead of schedule and spend the summer holidays in Russia. "As we have already reported, cases of atypical pneumonia among Russian citizens in China are not registered. The Russian Embassy in Beijing is conducting a complex of preventive measures.

One of the outstanding works of Casimir Malevich "Suprematist picture: a rectangle and a circle" became a key at the exhibition of the works of impressionism and modernism of the beginning of the last century that opened today in New York. It takes place in one of the Sotheby's auction galleries and will be put up for sale on May 6. Auction experts estimate the picture of $ 5-7 million.

In the South-East Turkish Province of Bingol today at 04:30 Moscow time there was an earthquake by force of 6.4 points on the Richter scale. The epicenter of the earthquake that occurred last night, according to the Seismological Center in Istanbul, was located in the immediate vicinity of the city of Bingol 690 kilometers east of Ankara. According to seismologists, tremors lasted 17 seconds.

In a night club in the east of the capital last night, one visitor was killed, another was a severe wound. This was reported on Thursday in law enforcement agencies of the capital. According to updated data, the incident occurred at about 22 hours in the metropolitan club "Cave" located in house number 6 on the Shchelkovo highway. Two unknown masks were included in the entertainment institution and shot two visitors.

The night before, a 25-year-old Muscovite committed suicide. The girl jumped from the 30-meter pipe of the boiler room on Bogdanov Street. According to the Central Internal Affairs Directorate of the capital, a woman who was intoxicated, jumped from a pipe at 20:15. With multiple fractures and a closed head injury, the victim was taken to the hospital, where she died. She did not leave the suicide notes, reports 'MK-News' . Links on the topic

The first official reaction of the RFU to the result of the match in Tbilisi between the national teams of Georgia and Russia was voiced by the vice president of the Russian Football Union Valery Draganov. He regarded the defeat of Russians as a very bad result. He expressed his opinion on the air of the Echo of Moscow radio station. On April 30, the Georgian national team players won the Russian team with a score of 1: 0 qualifying match of the European Championship in 2004.

Participants in the Pervomaisian rally in Bishkek, in which one and a half hundred representatives of the opposition forces took part, demanded the withdrawal of the US Air Force military base from the territory of Kyrgyzstan. In a rally, which was held in one of the central parks of the capital, according to the organizers, 160 people participated.

The seven soldiers of the American army were injured in the explosion of two grenades in the Iraqi city of El Falluge, where earlier the Americans, opening the fire in the crowd, killed at least 15 people. This was reported by the American command on Thursday.

In the south-east of Moscow, employees of the Vykhino police department in hot pursuit detained three criminals who abducted a local resident. This was reported on Thursday in the press service of the Central Internal Affairs Directorate of the capital. On April 30, the 32-year-old native of Azerbaijan, officially not working, turned to the Department for Combating Organized Crime ATS.

Rainer Shuttler will delight German fans, at least until the quarterfinals of the Munich Open tournament. In the 1/8 finals, the German won the Russian Nikolai Davydenko with a score of 4: 6, 6: 2, 6: 3. In this match, it should be noted, first of all, that Davydenko turns into force with which even a participant in the first dozens of the Asia Minor Race, which is a jestler, is considered.

The leadership of the radical organizations "Hamas" and "Islamic jihad" officially rejected the "road map" - a plan for the settlement of the Palestinian -Israeli conflict, developed by the "four" of the Middle Eastern intermediaries - the UN, the EU, the USA and Russia.

"King Techno" - an American mobile - will give the only concert in Moscow on June 23 at the Luzhniki Sports Palace, Interfax reports. “Moby is called the legend of electronic music, a man, fashionable not because he keeps up with ultra -modern musical trends, but because moby himself creates fashion,” the organizers of the tour. Mobile, whose real name Richard Melville Hall is a descendant of Herman Melville, who created "Moby Dick". It is this fact that explains the pseudonym of the musician.