Tonight in Moscow time at the Australian Open in the Melbourne, the prize fund of which is $ 19 million, semi -final matches in a female single category took place. The main trophy of the first tournament from the Grand Slam series will be played by the Belgian leaders of world tennis, Justin Enen-Ardenne and Kim Klisters, who received the first and second sowing numbers, respectively.

In Saransk, the dogs ate an unknown citizen. His gnawed corpse was discovered by the photojournalist of the Mordovian newspaper Capital-S , which called the police. According to him, on January 1 at about 15:00 he walked with his wife in the area of ​​the gas station located near the road number 5 of Saransk. Suddenly, his attention was attracted by a flock of dogs - a leader, two male and puppy. Noticing people, the animals rushed at the scatter.

The authorities of Abkhazia supported the initiative of the head of South Ossetia on the holding of the exercises of the power structures of the four unrecognized republics and announced their readiness to take part in them.

Evgeny Kafelnikov is quite capable of acting, primarily in paired tournaments, about three more years. This opinion was expressed today at a press conference in ITAR-TASS, President of the Russian Tennis Federation Shamil Tarpishchev. “This entirely depends on the moral and volitional qualities of Kafelnikov,” said the President of the FTR. “That is, he needs to learn how to play tournaments selectively, but for this you need to be able to maintain a form in the extra -permanent period.

The epidemiologists of Nizhnevartovsk found in the baby food "baby" lead - extremely harmful for health heavy metal. In a dry mixture of Russian production, its content exceeded the norm by two to three times. According to RIA Novosti, hundreds of packs of "baby" were removed from sale, but many products were already sold by this time, since it is in great demand. Doctors warn about the possibility of neurosis, insomnia and mental retardation in children.

During the examination of the airport of Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk, an explosive device, which the unknown was reported by the phone, was not found. The airport’s work is resumed as usual. According to the press service of the Internal Affairs Directorate of the Sakhalin Region, the search lasted about 2 hours, people were evacuated from the building. The airport was cordoned off by police officers. In connection with the incident, all flights were detained, RIA Novosti reports.

On Thursday, a meeting of the Committee 2008: Free Choice , established by a group of Russian public figures, politicians and journalists in mid -January. As it became known to Newsru.com, five new co -founders were accepted at a meeting at the Committee of 2008: Elena Bonner, Alexander Yakovlev, Oleg Sysuev, Mikhail Fedotov and Vladimir Ryzhkov.

On the Volgograd reservoir, a VAZ-2104 car failed under the ice. One person died. According to a source in the Office of Civil Defense and Emergencies of the Volgograd Region, on Wednesday evening, a car was driving a car on the ice of the reservoir from Kamyshin to Nikolaevka (Volgograd Region), Interfax reports. In 300 meters from the shore, the car fell under the ice. The two men who were in the cabin managed to get out of the water, and the woman did not have time to escape.

The National Central Bureau (NCB) of Interpol at the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia sent a request to Germany regarding the arrival of the Chechen emissary Ahmed Zakaev .

The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) with 46 votes "FOR" and 13 "Against" adopted on Thursday a resolution containing a point on the possibility of the exclusion of Ukraine from the Council of Europe.

On Thursday, Palermo hosted the presentation of the new Renault team, which will participate in the Formula 1 World Cup in 2004. For the presentation of the new R-24 model, the French company chose the Massimo Theater. The capabilities of the new Renault car were demonstrated on a special mini-track in the city center. The pilots of the team Yarno Truly and Fernando Alonso drove every seven laps. In this regard, the traffic in the center of Palermo was blocked for several hours.

In the capital of Zambia Lusaka, 110 people died of cholera. This was announced by the Minister of Health of the country Brian Chitovo, speaking Thursday in the country's parliament, Interfax reports. According to him, the first cases of the disease were registered on November 28 last year. Now in hospitals there are 2 thousand 482 patients with cholera. The outbreak of the epidemic, the minister noted, is caused by unsanitary conditions. In a neighboring mosambic, 10 people died from cholera.

The Orthodox community of Russia intends to achieve the construction of a Russian Orthodox church in Cuba. "The vast majority of the Orthodox inhabitants of Cuba are immigrants from states located on the canonical territory of the Russian Orthodox Church - Russia, Ukraine, Belarus," the Union of Orthodox citizens said in an Interfax agency today. Parishioners of the Patriarchate of Constantinople , according to the authors of the document, no more than fifty.

Organized crime was firmly entrenched in the Amsterdam International Schiphol Airport. Mafia groups are actively attracting airport employees to drug smuggling and theft of goods, RIA Novosti reports. "In the share" with them are also employees of various companies located at the airport, as well as numerous employees involved on a temporary basis. Thanks to high income from drug trafficking, criminals will not skimp in the bribery of the staff.

The explosion thundered on Thursday morning in the Iraqi city of Baakub. Eyewitnesses report numerous wounded. According to preliminary data, most of the victims are members of the Iraqi security agencies. The explosion thundered at the moment they patrolled the city, RIA Novosti reports. The city of Baakuba is located 65 km north of Baghdad.