US Secretary of State Colin Powell resigned. This was reported by the Fox News TV channel with reference to sources in the White House. The White House also officially announced the resignation of the US Secretary of State Colin Powell, the Minister of Agriculture Anna Veneman, the Minister of Education of the Page of the Page, and the Minister of Energy of Spencer Abraham.

The Serbian Orthodox Church (SPC) considers the currently inappropriate visit by the Pope John Paul II to Serbia. This was announced today by reporters at a press conference in Moscow who had arrived on a visit to Russia the Primate of the SPC Patriarch Pavel , ITAR-TASS reports. "Our bishop's cathedral made a decision: to consider this visit and a visit negative in the current circumstances," the patriarch said.

Russia's position on the problem of concluding a peace treaty with Japan has not changed, said the official representative of the Russian Foreign Ministry Alexander Yakovenko. “No changes in Russia's position have occurred, we are still ready to advance to solve the problem of a peace treaty with Japan on the basis of the integrated development of bilateral relations in accordance with the“ Russian-Japanese plan of action adopted at the highest level in January 2003, ”Yakovenko said.

The internal affairs department of the Ulyanovsk region, together with the Office of the FSB of the region, neutralized the gang, consisting of members of the extremist organization "Jamaat". This was reported to "Interfax" by the assistant prosecutor of the Ulyanovsk region Vasily Winter. According to him, during 2004, gang members, professing Wahhabism, committed a series of robberies, abductions of people, murders and other especially serious crimes in the region.

In the city of Usol-Sibirskoye, Irkutsk region, on suspicion of killing a pensioner, police officers detained her 14-year-old grandson, a 7th grade student, and a 10-year-old great-grandson, a student of the 2nd grade of a boarding school. According to the press service of the Central Internal Affairs Directorate of the Irkutsk Region, the corpse of a 72-year-old pensioner with a traumatic brain injury was discovered in the apartment of her house on Krasnoye Partisan Avenue.

The Gallery "House of Nashchokin" on November 30, 2004 opens an exhibition dedicated to the 140th anniversary of the birth of an outstanding Russian artist Valentin Serov. According to a press release received by Newsru.com, the exposition will include more than 60 picturesque and graphic works from the collection of museums in Russia, the Tretyakov Gallery and private collections.

The Higher Spiritual Order of Serbia will be awarded to Alexander Solzhenitsyn and Yuri Luzhkov. According to RIA Novosti , the Metropolitan Amphilochia announced this at a press conference in Moscow today. The outstanding writer and mayor of Moscow will be awarded the Order of St. Savva of the I degree - the highest award of the Serbian Orthodox Church (SKC). The corresponding decision was made on the eve of the Bishop Cathedral of the SPC.

About 10 thousand Muslims of Moscow, despite the rain, gathered last Sunday morning at the Moscow Cathedral Mosque to take part in the solemn prayer on the occasion of Uraza-Bayram , Interfax reports. Before the start of the only worship, the head of the Council of the Muftis of Russia Sheikh Ravil Gainutdin congratulated the co -religionists on the celebrated day of the Holy month of Ramadan , during which, according to legend, the Prophet Muhammad was sent down by the Koran .

After the victory of George Bush in the US presidential election, the White House begins active actions to eradicate dissent. According to the newspaper NewsDay , the White House ordered the head of the CIA Porter to the state to save the agency from all the employees disloyal to President, who "merged" information about the course of hostilities in Iraq and the hunt for Osama Ben Laden. "The agency is cleaned by order of the White House.

Over the past weekend, four monuments to Lenin suffered in St. Petersburg last weekend, RIA Novosti reports from the words of the director of the State Museum of City Sculpture Vladimir Timofeev. According to him, a monument at the Finland station and three busts on Kamennoostrovsky Prospekt, on the corner of Bolshoi Prospekt and Shirokoye Street, as well as a bust on the Vasilievsky Island located on the territory of the Pokrovskaya hospital, were soiled with white water -based paint.

Composer David Tukhmanov intends to challenge in court the use of his music "Victory Day" as a mobile phone mobile phone. This was reported by RIA Novosti by lawyer Irina Tulubyeva, representing the interests of the composer. "Today we are submitting three claims to the Moscow Basmanny Court on the protection of copyrights for content providers from Perm, Stavropol and Astrakhan," the lawyer said.

The coming week will prepare Muscovites for winter. As reported on Monday in the capital's hydrometeorological discovery, in the coming days it will be cold and even snow will pass. Now in Moscow weak frosts are up to minus one degree, in the region from minus 3 to 2 degrees of heat. In the afternoon it will be cloudy with clearings, the air will warm up slightly: in the capital it will be 2-4 degrees above zero, in the suburbs from 1 to 5 degrees of heat. The wind is west, moderate.

Five players of the Russian team will not take part due to injuries in the match of the qualifying tournament of the 2006 World Cup with the Estonian team, which will be held here on Wednesday. According to the doctors of the national team, the goalkeeper Sergey Ovchinnikov (Lokomotiv), defender Sergei Ignashevich (CSKA), midfielders Andrei Arshavin and Vladimir Nastrov (both Zenit) were added to the defender of the “wings of the Soviets” to Samara.

The main fighter with financial fraud in the United States Prosecutor New York Eliot Spitzer, who launched a wide struggle with violations in the US insurance industry, sent a lawsuit against the consulting universal Life Resources, which, according to the claim, picked up insurers not on the basis of the quality and price of services, but on the basis of rewards, but on the basis received from the same insurance companies.

The public anti -crisis council is formed in Sukhumi. It included representatives of various political parties and associations of Abkhazia. The Council, in order to resolve the situation in the republic, made a statement in which the opposing parties are proposed in their actions not to go beyond the legal field and sit down at the negotiating table.