The Silver medalist of last year's Olympics in Athens and the world championship of this year, the Latvian record holder Elena Rublevskaya (modern pentathlon) does not exclude that in the future it will not be represented not by Latvia, but by the Russian Federation. According to REGNUM , on December 16, the Riga newspaper Neatkarīgā (independent) writes about this. “I have a concrete proposal to submit Russia in the future,” Rublevskaya explained to the publication.

The chairman of the Papal Council for the assistance of Christian unity, Cardinal Walter Casper, sharply criticized the statement of President Iran Mahmud Ahmadi Nezhad that the Holocaust is a myth. “It is shocking when you hear from the lips of the president of the country with ancient culture, which is Iran, anti -Semitic expressions that are not acceptable for any reasonable creature,” the cardinal emphasized.

Last year, the Iraqi security forces caught the most wanted terrorist in the country, the leader of al-Qaeda in Iraq Abu Musab Az-Zarkavi , but released him without realizing who fell into their hands. This was announced on Thursday by Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Iraq Hussein Kamal, reports CNN . Kamal confirmed that Az-Zarkavi last year was really in custody in one of the insulators. At the same time, Kamal did not report any details of the erroneous liberation of the terrorist.

On Friday, in the Swiss Nyon, the drawing of the next stages of the Champions League and the UEFA Cup, in which Russia was represented by two clubs was represented by two clubs: the capital's “locomotive” and the St. Petersburg Zenit, took place at the UEFA headquarters. Last year’s winner of the UEFA Cup, Moscow CSKA finished his performance in this tournament, because he could not, unlike two other Russian teams, get into the top three in his group at the previous stage.

The heads of state and governments of 25 countries of the European Union, gathered for a two-day summit in Brussels, resolutely condemned the recent tough statements of President Iran Mahmud Ahmadi Nezhad in relation to Israel. "Such comments are completely unacceptable, they have no place in political debate," the European Council said in a joint statement of the European Council, RIA Novosti reports. Akhmadinejad, in particular, called the mass destruction of Jews during the Second World War.

All three world rating agencies recognized Russia investmently attractive. On Thursday, the Standard & Poor's agency increased the sovereign rating of Russia to the investment level. Now the Russian investment rating is confirmed by the entire three world rating agencies. Earlier, the investment level of the sovereign rating of Russia was established by Moody's and Fitch agencies. Standard & Poor's is considered the most conservative agency from this three.

Branches of foreign banks will not be allowed to Russia. This was said at the highest level: President Vladimir Putin agreed on Wednesday with the opinion of the government, which in turn, in accordance with the banking community. It picked up this idea from Vladimir Gusinsky. Such a measure can lead to the failure of negotiations on Russia's entry into the WTO, to which the Minister of Economic Development and Trade, German Gref, flew to Hong Kong, writes an independent newspaper .

The amendment of Jackson-Vanik for Ukraine will remain in force, at least until the end of this year. The lower house of the US Congress decided to postpone the vote to cancel the amendments in connection with the growth of anti-Semitic manifestations in Ukraine, Igor Gavdyak, chairman of the Ukrainian-American Coordinating Council, told Radio Liberty . Recall, for the abolition of a restrictive foreign trade amendment, Jackson-Vanik for Ukraine unanimously voted on November 20, the US Senate .

In Tokyo, the final of the Grand Prix series on figure skating starts. The competitive part of the tournament will be held on December 16 and 17. On the first day, loners and sports couples will demonstrate short programs, dance duets will execute the original dance, and in the second arbitrary programs in all types of figure skating will be presented. The only species in which representatives of Russia will not perform - male single skating, RIA Novosti reports.

After the reconstruction, the bell tower of Ivan the Great will open to visitors. This was announced in an interview with RIA Novosti by the General Director of the Museum-Reserve Moscow Kremlin Elena Gagarina. In 2006, 96 million rubles were allocated from the federal budget for the restoration of architectural monuments of the Moscow Kremlin.

In Tyumen, a criminal case has been instituted against a man who caused a major damage to Microsoft. This was announced on Friday by the senior investigator of the prosecutor's office of the Kalinin administrative district of Tyumen, Vladimir Mikhalkov. According to him, the employees of the KO department of the Central Executive Committee of the Tyumen Region conducted a verification purchase at the shopping point of a private entrepreneur located on Yamskaya Street.

The State Duma on Friday adopted in the second reading the amendments to the current Law "On Political Parties", granting the right of a political party, which won the regional parliamentary elections, to offer their candidate for the post of senior official of the constituent entity of the Russian Federation. According to the amendments, the proposal of the political party is sent to the President of the Russian Federation for the subsequent submission of it to the regional parliament.

Numerous searches in the Italian areas of Lombardy, campaigns and Liguria held on Friday morning the special forces of the financial guard as part of the operation to combat international terrorism. Residential and office premises were inspected, as well as vehicles belonging to the Algerians living in Italy.

Russian President Vladimir Putin supported the initiative to educate a new constituent entity of the Russian Federation by uniting the Irkutsk region and the Ust-Ordynsky Buryat Autonomous Okrug. The corresponding letter was received by the governor of the Irkutsk region, the regional administration said.

For some time, the representative of the Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich regularly traveled to the town of Montalchino, Siena's province in search of the sold winery. He tried to buy Castello Banfi, one of the largest enterprises for the production of Brunello di Montalcino, but was refused to offer 500 million euros. Then he headed for other wine producers in this area.