An unreasonable exciting demand for salt, which has been observed in several Russian regions in the last days, went to decline. This was confirmed by the international confederation of consumer societies. According to her, “there are no real economic prerequisites for salt deficiency”, since its reserves are large enough both in Russia and in the CIS countries.

The salt fever, which began in the Russian outback, reached the Moscow Region, writes the Moscow Komsomolets . Despite the sedative comments of officials, the people sweep out a scarce product from the shelves. For several days, cheap shops have been filled with gaping voids with peas and pearl barley, and in the markets prices have taken off 3-4 times. The morning of Friday did not portend any extra bustle for the grocery store of Krasnogorsk.

The Prime Minister of the Russian Federation Mikhail Fradkov denied the rumors of his poor health periodically appearing in the media and set a record for the number of air travel over one visit. On February 15-17, Fradkov was on a visit to Vietnam, and on the way back on Saturday made a one-day working trip to the Kemerovo region, Interfax reports.

The actions of the Volgograd authorities, who decided to close the newspaper “City Vesti” after the publication of a drawing with the image of Christ, Moses, Buddha and Prophet Muhammad, was absurd, told Interfax on Saturday the chairman of the Presidential Council for the Development of Civil Society Institutes and Human Rights Ella Pamfilova. "This whole situation and actions of the authorities cause complete bewilderment. You can not reach the absurdity.

Two military transport helicopters of the US Marine Corps collapsed on Friday into the waters of the Gulf of Aden off the coast of the Republic of Djibuti. According to Pentagon, Lieutenant Colonel Joe Carpenter, in total there were 12 naval infantrymen on board. So far, only two managed to save, ITAR-TASS reports. They were helped by Djibutinsky troops who were not far from the place of helicopter falls. The rescued were delivered to the French military base in the port of Djibuti.

Russia and NATO are needed by a unified air defense system, says Mikhail Margelov, chairman of the Federation Council Committee on International Relations. “Everyone has an incident with our plane over Lithuania, and such an incident was not the only one. The solution to this problem requires the creation of joint Russia and the Air Defense System Alliance,” Margelov said, speaking in St. Petersburg at the Russian and NATO conference: to effective cooperation in a changing world.

Russian skiers consisting of Natalia Baranova-Masalkina, Larisa Kurkina, Yulia Chepalova, Evgenia Medvedeva-Arbuzova won the 4x5 km relay and became Olympic champions. This "gold" has already become the sixth for Russia at the current games. The starting stage, which the participants fled with a classic style, brought an unexpected result: the Japanese team led the race, and our team passed the intermediate finish with only the ninth time.

The head coach of the Russian team in ski racing Elena Vyalba Paizato belongs to one of the leaders of the team, the world champion 2003 Olga Zavyalova. Vyalbe convinced the coaching staff of the Russian team not to include a skier in today's relay race. “I don’t have any logical explanations of Olga Zavyalova’s non -confusion in the relay team,” Grushin told the whole sport agency. “To date, she is the best classist in the Russian national team.

Russian skiers, brilliantly won the 4x5 km relay at the Olympics , suddenly faced the circumstances before the start that could subsequently cross out all their efforts. This was reported by one of the participants in the race Natalya Baranova-Masalkina. Initially, Russian coaches put Larisa Kurkin starting, and Baranov -Masalkin in the second stage.

US President George Bush announced Washington's plans to create new atomic reactors and technologies together with Russia, France and Japan in the framework of the recently declared initiative called Global Nuclear Energy Partnership).

The head of the Palestinian National Administration, Mahmoud Abbas, in a speech at the first meeting of the new composition of the Palestinian Legislative Council (Parliament) on Saturday will call the Hamas movement to agree to peaceful negotiations with Israel. “Abbas will call for the Hamas movement to declare its consent to negotiations with Israel to find a peaceful decision,” the Arab media quotes the statement in Ramallach Abbas Nabil Abu Rulein.

The German biathlete Katya Wilhelm became the Olympic champion in the persecution race. The distance of 10 km with four fire borders Katya was almost perfect. To a great move on the ski track, Wilhelm added only one miss. Our Albina has a bronze medal. This was the Wilhelm race! Even terrible weather conditions (it was constantly snowing and a gusty wind blew) did not stop Katya. She flew perfectly along the highway, only once wrapped in a penalty circle.

Five people died today as a result of the Mi-2 helicopter disaster of the National Company "Uzbek Airlines", the ITAR-TASS Corr in the Ministry of Emergencies of Uzbekistan said. The plane crash occurred at 09:05 in the morning local time 15 kilometers from the city of Zravshan, Navoi region. On board the crashed Mi-2 were two crew members and three employees of the Navoi Mining and Processing Plant. They made a planned flight of production facilities.

Georgia does not intend to export the revolution, said Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili. “Georgia has no complaints about the export of the revolution, and such accusations are offensive to it,” he said at the International Conference on National Security held in Tbilisi on February 17-18. “I am not Fidel Castro and Che Guevara is not in Georgia,” he added.

The Olympic champion in the biathlon race of persecution for 15 kilometers was the Frenchman Vincent Defran. At the last meters of the distance, he overtook the five-time Olympionic Norwegian Ole-Einar Bjurndalen. The best of Russians Maxim Chudov took ninth place. After the first fire border, the Norwegians were the leaders - Halvard Hanvold, Frodes Andersen and Ole -Einar Bjurndalen.