In Moscow, Russian-Belarusian negotiations on trade issues, including the supply and transit of oil , reported by ITARS, citing the press service of the Ministry of Economic Development and Trade of the Russian Federation.

The male team of Russia in Biathlon on Thursday won silver medals in the relay race of 4x7.5 at the fifth stage of the World Cup in German Rupolding. Competitions in this discipline were the last check before the starting world in February in February in February. The Russian team consisting of Ivan Cherezov, Maxim Gudov, Dmitry Yaroshenko and Nikolai Kruglova, allowing 9 misses, lost to the first place to the Norwegians only 4.6 seconds.

The American actress Miril Streep will play in the film adaptation of the popular musical "Mamma Mia!" Creed down on the basis of the popular songs of the ABBA group, Reuters reports. History unfolds around the wedding on the Greek Island. Mother refuses to open her daughter, who is her father. The bride is forced to invite three men to the wedding, each of whom can be her father. Streep plays the role of a stubborn mother.

Excavations of the mass grave in the Central Square of Tallinn, where the monument to the warrior-liberator of the Estonian capital from the Nazi occupation stands, can begin in May. This was announced on Thursday by Estonian Prime Minister Andrus Ansip at a press conference, ITAR-TASS reports. According to Ansip, if during the excavations the remains of the soldiers who died during the liberation of the city in 1944 are discovered, they will be transferred to the cemetery.

Ali Hassan al-Majid, the cousin of Saddam Hussein, admitted that he personally ordered the Kurdish villages in 1988. About this, as ITAR-TASS reports, he himself stated at the hearing in Baghdad in the so-called "al-Antal case". This is the second episode about the crimes of the Hussein regime. Al-Majid, after the execution of Saddam Hussein, remained the main accused. Hussein was executed in another case, but in the al-Antal case he was threatened with a similar punishment.

The Tu-204 passenger plane made an emergency landing at the Emelyanovo Airport in Krasnoyarsk on Thursday. According to Interfax with reference to the press service of the Siberian Regional Center of the Ministry of Emergencies of the Russian Federation, the aircraft of the N669 flight, with the on-board number 64018, owned by Krasair flew at 14:16 local time from the Emelyanovo airport along the route Krasnoyarsk-St. Petersburg.

President of Kazakhstan Nursultan Nazarbayev signed decrees on the appointment of eleven members of the Government of Kazakhstan, thus completing the process of forming a new cabinet led by Karim Masimov, ITAR-TASS reports. According to Kazakhstan Today , most ministers from the government of Danial Akhmetov retained their posts, the agency reports Recall that Maximov headed the government the day before. His predecessor in this post Akhmetov resigned on January 8.

The total number of people in places of imprisonment in 2006 increased by almost 51 thousand people. As Interfax, Yuri Kalinin, Director of the Federal Penitentiary of Russia, told Interfax on Thursday, at the moment 872 thousand people are contained in the imprisonment. As Kalinin noted, the number of people held in investigative insulators was reduced at the same time - by 1,400 people, in prisons - by 600 people and educational colonies for minors - by 1,500 people.

Some details of the accident became known, due to which the five -time winner of this race - the crew of Vladimir Chagin, left the struggle on the rally. According to the press service of the KAMAZ team , the fifth stage of UARZAZAT-TAN-TAN was extremely unfavorable for the Russians. At first, the crew of Vladimir Chagin had a breakdown of the fuel system, the repair of which took about 20 minutes.

On January 17, 2007, an exit meeting of the Russian Council of Russia under the chairmanship of Sheikh Ravil Gainutdin will be held in Saratov. The meeting will be devoted to education issues, including the issue of the prospects for teaching at the state and municipal school of the course "The Fundamentals of World Religions".

The Government of Germany decided to send six Tornado fighter-bomber fighters to Afghanistan. This was announced on Thursday by a representative of the Ministry of Defense of Germany, reports ITAR-TASS. Aircraft will be used to support the ground forces in the fighters of the militants of the Taliban radical-Islamic movement. To send them to Afghanistan, a special expanded mandate of the Bundestag is not required.

Three strong explosions thundered today in the city of Khorramshahr of the province of Khuzistan. This was reported by Reuters, referring to the Iranian media. The causes of the incident are not specified, there is also no information about the victims and destruction. However, all three explosions were so powerful that glass was knocked out in nearby buildings. Note that the Huzistan Province, the Oil Production Center, borders with Iraq.

The Patriarchate of Constantinople and the problems that he are forced to overcome became the theme of the article by the Turkish writer, the 2006 Nobel Prize laureate in the literature of Orhan Pamuka, in the anniversary issue of the Turkish newspaper Radikal , the Patriarchia.ru website reports.

The special operation to destroy militants in Makhachkala . As Arkady Zhovlev, the deputy head of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia, who arrived at the place of operation, told reporters, three militants were killed: the head of the group Shamil Gasanov, his assistants Dagir Gadzhiev and a militant named Khalid, ITAR-TASS reports. Recall that it was previously reported that not three, but four militants died in a shootout with law enforcement agencies.

Tax officials want to recover from the Russian unit PricewaterhouseCoopers (PWC) of almost half a million dollars. Representatives of the Federal Tax Service (Federal Tax Service), increased their claims to the audit company, which, according to the tax authorities, helped the company Yukos hide illegal tax schemes .