This season of women’s jumping competitions are included this season in the Golden League International Association of athletics federations (IAAF) - the prestigious series of commercial tournaments, the main prize in which is 1 million US dollars. The corresponding decision was made at the next IAAF meeting, which took place in Dakar. Five male and five female athletic disciplines are identified, in which Jack-Pot will be played, and the conditions of the tournament.

The political officer of the Tomsk regional branch of United Russia on Wednesday excluded from the party of the mayor of Tomsk Alexander Makarov. This was reported by the press service of the Tomsk branch of the party. The decision was made due to the fact that on the evening on Wednesday the regional prosecutor’s office opened a criminal case against Makarov immediately under three articles of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation.

The case of the former manager of Samaraneftegaz OJSC (100%subsidiary of the NK Yukos) Pavel Anisimov, accused of illegal entrepreneurship, was received by the Samara Regional Court for consideration on the merits. The regional prosecutor’s office believes that the enterprise, which he headed, received a huge income from oil production in excess of the limits established by the state. Anisimov’s defense claims that there is no corpus delicti in his actions, Kommersant writes.

The German football club "Hamburg" disqualified for two matches and fined the Cameroon defender Timothy Atubu for an indecent gesture addressed to the fans of his team, reports Reuters . The incident took place on Wednesday during the last match of the Champions League group stage against the Moscow CSKA . Because of the foul of Atuba, CSKA received the right to a penalty, having realized which the Moscow club came forward at the 23rd minute of the meeting.

In the Shalinsky district of Chechnya, the police department appeared with a guilty sergeant-contract of the North battalion Ruslan Betiev, who told about his participation in the abduction of two troops in 2000. "The 32-year-old platoon commander voluntarily came to the police department and said that in October 2000, together with a group of persons, he participated in the abduction of two troops of the federal forces," ITAR-TASS in the law enforcement agencies of the republic said.

The highest religious legislative body of conservative Judaism - the central current in the worldwide Judaism , voted the day before to allow homosexuals to dedicate the rabbin and the conclusion of same -sex unions. This decision, adopted after many years of disputes, was rejected by traditionalists who considered it a sign that conservative Judaism retreated from the Jewish law.

Forward of the national team of Croatia and the Moscow CSKA Ivitsa Olich wants to go to the camp of the most fundamental opponent of the army, the capital's “Spartak”, even despite his interest in him from the Scottish Rangers. “The chances that I will stay in Moscow 50 to 50,” Croat himself said. “Moscow“ Spartak ”made me a fantastically profitable proposal, and I don’t care that the red -white are the main competitor of CSKA,” the Olich quotes Eurosport .

Celebrations marking the 55th anniversary of the Czech and Slovak Orthodox Church receiving autocephaly from the Moscow Patriarchate begin today in the Czech Republic. “We are grateful to the Russian Orthodox Church (ROC) for granting autocephaly, which has made it possible to unite Orthodox believers more closely,” Metropolitan Christopher, the head of the Czech and Slovak Orthodox Church, said in an interview with ITAR-TASS.

The director of the Institute of Economics of the Transition period, the former head of the government of the Russian Federation Yegor Gaidar believes that he was poisoned, and this may be beneficial to those who want to worsen Russia's relationship with the West.

At the last meeting, the deputies of the district council of the Balashovsky district of the Saratov region almost unanimously deprived the independent television company NSN Balashov not only access to meetings, but also the right to cover any events involving local authorities. Journalists of the television company were accused of perversion of the facts and discrediting the work of deputies and the district administration.

Poland is ready to remove the veto for negotiations between Russia-Es, according to Euobserver . France President Jacques Shirak and German Chancellor Angela Merkel were able to convince Polish Polish Lech Kachinsky to soften the position against Russia. Warsaw no longer raises the question of the immediate signing of the energy charter. The European Union promises to help Warsaw agree with Moscow on the issue of removing the meat embargo.

Prime Minister of Ukraine Viktor Yanukovych is going to revive his "family nest" - the village of Yanuki, which is located in Belarus. According to Ukrainian Pravda , Yanukovych during a visit to the village struck the devastation in the homeland of their ancestors - now only two families live there. The Prime Minister caught fire with a desire to give the village a second life, writes the Ukrainian agency.

The press service of the Moscow Religious Society of Friends (Quakers) spread a statement in connection with the adoption of the death sentence to Saddam Hussein in Iraq. The document says: "Quakers believe that inside each person there is a spark of divine light, and the spirit of love and understanding should reign between people. The death penalty is unacceptable. The conditions for correcting the criminal and his repentance to people and God are necessary.

Exactly 15 years ago, on the map of the world, the USSR ceased to exist. On December 8, 1991, the leaders of Russia, Ukraine and Belarus signed the Belovezhsky agreement, and on December 21 a new interstate education appeared - the Commonwealth of Independent States. Since then, the assessment of this agreement remains contradictory: the politicians standing in power at that time consider it to be inevitable, their opponents add evil.

More than half of Russians (57%) consider themselves patriots, do not consider themselves about a third. These are the research data conducted by the Public Opinion Foundation. The respondents were asked not only to answer the question of belonging to the patriots, but also to evaluate the significance of the criteria for love for the homeland. So, the most indisputable of these criteria was the attitude to native nature.