Last year, Hajj performed more than 1.5 million believers. This year, the number of pilgrims exceeded 2 million. Despite the quota introduced by the Saudi Arabia by the Saudi government (1 pilgrim from 1000 believers), the number of Muslims who want to commit Hajj is growing from year to year, which creates a number of problems not only for the pilgrims themselves, but also for the Saudi Arabia authorities, today NG-religions reported.

Guinea President Lansan Comte did not suffer when the coup dilapidation in this Western African country failed today. This was stated in the Guinean capital, Minister of Security of the Republic of Musa Sampil. He specified that unknown persons tried to kill the head of state and fired at the presidential motorcade. According to the minister, the attackers did not harm the president. Several people are arrested.

Many -day protests by Russian pensioners actually achieved the abolition of the monetization of benefits from the regional authorities. At least in the part that concerns the abolition of free travel by public transport - it was this part of the reform that caused the greatest outrage among the elderly.

Leonid Nevzlin, which controls Group Menatep (and, therefore Yukos), after Mikhail Khodorkovsky transferred his shares to him , violated the vow of silence and gave the first great interview to Vedomosti. - Leonid Nevzlin. Biographical certificate Last spring, Leonid Nevzlin announced that he stops political activity and for several years refuses to communicate with the press. But last week he again ended up at the epicenter of events.

Russia calls for a global list of persons involved in terrorist activities. This was stated today in Moscow by the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation Sergey Lavrov. He believes that such persons "must be issued to states", ITAR-TASS reports. “Russia submitted a proposal for such a list to the UN Security Council, it was taken into study and a special group was created to study this issue,” Lavrov recalled.

Five explosions thundered in the capital of Iraq Baghdad on Wednesday. As a result of these terrorist attacks, at least 30 people were killed. A powerful explosion thundered on Wednesday in Baghdad next to the Australian diplomatic mission. A car stuffed with explosives took off into the air. According to the police, a bomb was driven by a suicide bomb. The terrorist machine rammed the barriers installed in front of the Australian troops checkpoint.

The monument to the Supreme Commander of the Soviet Union Joseph Stalin (Dzhugashvili) is planned to be installed in the Belgorod region to the 60th anniversary of Victory. According to the Interfax in the press center of the governor Yevgeny Savchenko, the regional council of veterans made the proposal for the installation of the monument.

The criminal case of the surviving terrorist Nur-Pashi Kulaev, who participated in the attack on the school in Beslan , will be sent to the Supreme Court of North Ossetia in mid-February. This was announced on Wednesday at a press conference by the Deputy Prosecutor General of the Russian Federation Vladimir Kolesnikov.

The world champion among women in the second medium and weight of Leila Ali will conduct her next fight against the 36-year-old Cassandra Geiger, reports Allboxing.ru . The duel will take place on February 11, and the wiba belt in the second middleweight belonging to Ali will be in it, despite the fact that she spent her last match in a weight, winning the vacant IWBF belt.

Metropolitan Adrian (Campinun), a member of the Bioetical Committee of the Romanian Orthodox Church, said that the fertilization of In Vitro (in a test tube) was contrary to Christian morality, the Blagovers-Info reports with reference to the website www.earthtimes.org. The statement of the hierarch was caused by reports that the 67-year-old Romanian Adrian Ilescu became the oldest woman in the world who managed to give birth.

For about an hour, judges of the Chamber of Civil Courts of the Supreme Court are conferred by a decision on the complaint of presidential candidate Viktor Yanukovych.

The photographs of the bullying of the English soldiers over the Iraqi prisoners, published in the UK, shocked the country. Most of the central English newspapers on Wednesday placed these pictures in their first stripes. The photographs capture the stripped Iraqis, simulating sexual acts, soldiers who beat the related prisoners, as well as other forms of bullying. For example, in one of the pictures you can see a prisoner tied to a loader car, reports Sky News .

The city court of 28-year-old Konstantin Olenchikov, accused of murder of 4 people in the Vasilievsky Island in the spring of 2003, sentenced the City Court of St. Petersburg to a life-sentence in a special regime colony in a special regime colony.

The famous children's doctor Leonid Roshal on Wednesday was awarded the Prize "European" of the year of the journal Reader's Digest . Roshal’s candidacy was approved by the chief editors of 18 European publications of the magazine, RIA Novosti reports. Roshal "better than others embodies modern European values ​​and traditions," the director of foreign publications Reader's Digest Konrad Kichel said at the award ceremony in Moscow.

At the Summit in Bratislava, the presidents of Russia and the United States will discuss the issue of increasing the readiness of the world community to counteract spontaneous disasters, said Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov. "I think the meeting will be heard in the meeting related to the need to increase the readiness of the world community for natural disasters like the tsunami in Southeast Asia," the minister said at a press conference in Moscow.