Moscow opposes attempts to turn the UN Security Council into an investigative and procedural mechanism on the problem of Syria, said the Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.

The Executive Committee of the Russian Federation of Basketball (RFB) approved the lists of the 25 best players of the country in men's and women's basketball according to the results of the 2004/05 season.

During the explosion of a mined car on Monday, in the center of the Iraqi city of Basra, at least 20 people were killed, another 40 were injured, AR reports with reference to a source in the local police. The explosion thundered at 20:30 local time in the trading part of the second largest Iraq. In the last days of the Holy Muslims, Ramadan in the area where shops and restaurants are located, many people are gathering in the evenings, RIA Novosti notes.

In another settlement of the Chelyabinsk region, the sixth in a row, the focus of "bird flu" was revealed. “Bird influenza dysfunction was revealed on three farmsteads of the village of Shatrovov, Etkulsky district. According to preliminary data, 13 heads of birds, mainly chickens, died,” Anatoly Peshkov, head of the regional veterinary department at the Ministry of Agriculture, told Interfax. According to him, only 14 farms of the village contain 156 birds.

Belgian tennis player Justin Enen-Ardenne, who takes the sixth place in the WTA ranking , refused to take part in the final tournament of the WTA Tour Championships season, which starts on November 7 in American Los Angeles, due to injury to the top of the podok. In an interview with the Belgian newspaper Le Soir, Enene-Ardenne said she could not fully recover from the damage received in June on the Roland Garros courts in Paris.

The cause of the disease in Volgograd students of the “Leader” lyceum may be salmonellosis. This was reported on Monday in the administration of the Volgograd region. The investigation conducted the day before showed that the cause of the outbreak of infection, as a result of which 120 children and one adult RIA Novosti were injured on October 28. Immediately after the hospitalization of children, an operational group was created in the area.

Human rights activists did not receive information about any serious violations of the rights of prisoners in the colonies, where the former head of the Yukos Mikhail Khodorkovsky and the head of the MFI Menatep Platon Lebedev were sent to serve his sentence. “As far as I know, there are no complaints at the colony where they are serving a sentence. We did not receive signals,” Lev Ponomarev said on Monday of Interfax.

Mel Gibson, the director of the film "Passion of Christ", announced his intention to implement a new project called "Apocalypto": this time we are talking about the bloody rituals of Mayan civilization, Interfax reports. The film will be shot in the ancient dialect "Yucatk". Speaking about the name of the film, the director explained that in Greek, it means "a new beginning." “I hope that, paying attention to this civilization, we can pay eyes to ourselves.

A resolution has been introduced into the House of Representatives of the US Congress, in which on behalf of the American Congress, concern is expressed in connection with the sentence Mikhail Khodorkovsky , as well as the sale of assets and the change of owners of Yukos.

Over the past year, the number of Russians who declare their faith in God increased by 6%, and the share of those who believe in fate was reduced by 5%, according to the All -Russian Center for the Study of Public Opinion (VTsIOM), Interfax reports. During the October survey, 1600 people in 153 settlements in 46 regions, edges and republics of Russia more than half (58%) of them reported that they believe in God. Vera in fate (35%) is quite popular among respondents.

In the Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug, a man arrested for robbery fled from the hospital. According to RIA Novosti, a source in the Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrugovis of the Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug, on the eve of the Oktyabrsky village from the Chamber of the Therapeutic Department of the Central District Hospital, taking advantage of the inattention of employees of the security and conference service of the police department, 34-year-old A. Kazymov, arrested for robbery.

The Baptist priest in the American city of Waiko (Texas) died during the baptism of the baptism, reports Interfax. The priest was in a large container of water. He took the microphone so that his words were better heard by all those present. This device turned out to be faulty, and as a result, a 33-year-old man received a powerful discharge of current at the moment when he pronounced a prayer. The victim was taken to the hospital, but the doctors could not save his life.

The director of the Moscow kindergarten was detained for a bribe, a woman was charged with extorting money for registering a child in the garden. According to the capital’s control against economic crimes, the operatives of the Service for Combating the Service Crimes of the Department of Internal Affairs of the Central Administrative District detained the director of the kindergarten N 1786, located in Bolshoi Trekhogorny Lane, Natalia Arbatova upon receipt of a bribe.

The American command in Iraq reported on Monday about the death of six US army servicemen in the vicinity of Baghdad, Interfax reports. Four of them died as a result of shelling in the area of ​​the village of Yusufi (50 km southwest of Baghdad), two others in the area of ​​the city of Balad to the north of the Iraqi capital. Also, according to the American command in Iraq, the operation continues to destroy the Iraqi rebels related to al-Qaeda near the city of Kaim on the border with Syria.

Prisoner Mikhail Khodorkovsky, who in mid -October was transferred from Moscow to serve his term to a general regime colony near the city of Krasnokamensk, Chita region, met with a priest, former prisoners. The 49-year-old priest, father Sergius (Taratukhin), and 42-year-old Mikhail Khodorkovsky went very different ways during the agony of the Soviet Union and the birth of a new Russian state.