Senator John Kerry called George Bush on Wednesday and recognized his defeat in the presidential election . “My congratulations, Mr. President,” Kerry said, addressing Bush. Their conversation lasted less than five minutes. According to AR, a source at the Democrats headquarters, Bush called Kerry a worthy, strong and honorary rival.

In connection with strong smoking, employees of the Ministry of Finance of the Russian Federation who worked in one of the buildings of the department in the center of Moscow at Vetoshny Lane, house 5/4 were evacuated. This was reported to "Interfax" by a source in the metropolitan department of the state fire service. The building has the licensing department of the Department of State Financial Control of the Audit and Accounting of the Ministry of Finance of the Russian Federation.

Indian farmers came up with a new effective way to combat parasites. Instead of expensive pesticides, they use Coca-Cola drink. According to farmers, Coca-Cola is much more effective than all funds against parasites. Aphids and other insects die from it as quickly as from pesticides, and the cola costs several times cheaper. Farmers in the states of Andra Pradesh and Chatisharh spray their cotton fields with a drink, writes The Guardian (translation on the website Inopressa.ru ).

Vladimir Putin approved the changes in the first and second parts of the Tax Code. According to the Kremlin press service, the president signed the Federal Law "On Amendments to the Part of the First and Second of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation, as well as on the recognition of certain legislative acts (provisions of legislative acts) of the Russian Federation." The Federal Law is supplemented by the Tax Code of the Russian Federation by the new chapter 25-3 "State Duties".

The power of an explosive device, blown up on the eve of a parking lot in Makhachkala, was 25 kg in TNT equivalent. About this RIA "Novosti" on Wednesday was reported by a source in the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Dagestan. The explosion occurred on Tuesday at 19:00 Moscow time at a paid parking lot located on Akushinsky Avenue, opposite house number 84. Moskich-412 was exploded, which belongs to a resident of Khasavyurt Ruslan Ismailov.

In China, a fire was eliminated, which arose for more than a hundred years at the large coal deposit of Luhuangow in the Xinjiang-Uyghur Autonomous Region (Suir). Over the past four years, fire brigades spent about $ 12 million on the fight against fire, which annually, according to estimates, destroyed 1.8 million tons of coal.

The accused of inciting religious enmity organizers of the exhibition “Caution, Religion!”, Opening in January last year, in the Museum and Public Center named after Andrei Sakharov, do not admit their guilt. The case of the accused - the director of the museum Yuri Samodurov, his employees Lyudmila Vasilovskaya and the artist Anna Mikhalchuk - were considered today in the Tver court of the city of Moscow.

This summer, 19 fish-zmegolovs were caught in the Potomak River near the capital of the United States. The latter snakes 10 cm long - in early October, which indicates that this Asian fish is actively propagated in local waters. This is reported on Wednesday is reported by The New York Times . Two years ago, the federal government forbade the import of snakes - a delicacy of Chinese and Thai cuisine. However, this fish, which can grow up to several feet in length, has a huge supply of vitality.

In the city of Novoaltaysk, a 16-year-old schoolboy was detained for the repeated sale of psychotropic substance. According to the press service of the Gosnarkokontrol Office of the Altai Territory, during operational measures, more than 100 capsules of 0.2 grams of psychotropic substance were seized from the teenager, which is not used in ordinary medicine, but is included in the set of a military individual first-aid kit and is used if chemical or radiation weapons are affected.

The policemen of Yekaterinburg detained 285 buyers of stolen during the Operation "Sales". According to the press secretary of the city Internal Affairs Directorate Leonid Semenov, the operation lasted a week. During the operation, 243 cell phones, 387 grams of gold products, two fur coats, a video camera, a laptop, two cameras and an automobile air conditioner were seized at the surgery delivered to the city of the city.

In the investigation of the case of an attack of militants on school in Beslan, new scandalous defendants appeared. Among the bodies of the terrorists destroyed at the school, the investigators identified the former senior officer of the department of their own security (OSB) of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ingushetia Bashira Pliev, reports "News Time" .

On Wednesday, the Federal Arbitration Court of the Moscow District upheld the decision of the court of first instance of August 13, which confirmed the legality of the arrest of shares of the company Tomskneft-VNK. Thus, the court dismissed Yukos’s cassation appeal, Interfax reports.

A meeting of representatives of players of all 30 NHL clubs with a hockey player union did not add optimism to hockey fans awaiting the completion of the local . The result of the discussions held on the eve of Toronto was the confirmation of the previous, largely uncompromising, positions of the NHL players association in an ongoing conflict with the owners of the clubs.

Hungary will withdraw his military contingent from Iraq until March 31, 2005. This was announced on Wednesday by Prime Minister Ferenz Durashi, who headed the Hungarian government a month ago. "Our duty, as allies, to stay there (in Iraq) before the elections," he said. However, according to him, after the elections, "security in Iraq should be ensured by political means." Since September last year, 300 Hungarian troops have been in Iraq, Interfax reports.

In the Moscow region, police officers revealed two cases of abduction of people. According to the UBOP of the Central Internal Affairs Directorate of the Moscow Region, on the eve of the police, a 64-year-old resident of Moscow turned to the police, who said that on October 29, on Freedom Street in the capital, unknown people abducted her 31-year-old son and hold in an unknown place in Sergiev Posad. For the liberation of the young man, 50 thousand dollars were demanded, Interfax reports.