On the fourth game day at the Australian Open Championship of Russia in the men's net of a single tournament, it decreased very noticeably. After the defeat of Dmitry Tursunov, who could not take the ticket to the third round of Australian Open from the American Sam Curry, Marat Safin was also forced to cover his racket.

The Pentagon budget bill approved the House of Representatives of the US Congress, removing from this document objectionable to the White House of wording. 369 congressmen voted in his support, 46 against - 46. The bill was approved by the US Congress and was transferred to the president for signature in the middle of December last year. However, Bush put a veto on him.

Concern with the suspension of the work of the British Council departments in Russia was expressed on Thursday by the chairman of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe Rene van der Linden. "This causes us more and more anxiety, especially in view of the fact that relations between the European Union and Russia are now poisoned by specific incidents," said the official quoted by Interfax .

The chairman of the local council of the regional association in the south of France, Languedok-Russillion, said on Wednesday that he dreamed of installing in the administrative center of the region, the city of Montpellier, and the statue of Lenin. It is reported by RIA Novosti with reference to local media. “I have a thousand ideas that captivate me. To install a statue of Lenin in Montpellier is one of these projects,” Georges Fresh said in an interview with the city newspaper Midi Libre.

Sun Microsystems reached an agreement on the purchase for $ 1 billion of MySQL, a shell developer to create a database based on open code. This was reported by the press service of Sun, reports Prime-Tass. The transaction will allow SUN to enter the global software market for databases, the volume of which is estimated at $ 15 billion a year. Sun plans to complete the deal at the end of the third? early fourth quarter of 2008 financial year.

A group of scientists from the University of Etvash Loranda in Hungary claims that she managed to develop a computer program for translating dog barking.

Presidential candidate from United Russia Dmitry Medvedev will unveil the theses of his election program on January 22 at the Second All -Russian Civil Forum, which will hold the Public Chamber and on January 29 at the congress of the Association of Russian Lawyers in the presence of the entire power bloc.

Not only men consider long -legged women more attractive. Women also consider long -legged men to be physically more attractive compared to their more stocky brothers, a new study showed. According to psychologists, long legs indicate a person’s health, which plays an important role in the embodiment of reproductive goals.

The Dalai Lama XIV, who was on a visit to Italy, gave the day before a lengthy interview to the French weekly Le Nouvel Observateur . Describing the personality of the head of the Buddhists of Tibet, the publication notes that this is a sincere and cheerful person who does not miss the opportunity to laugh, which often could be observed during the conversation. It has not a shadow of stiffness.

{pic_1} on one of the German gas stations in the city of Iserlon, due to a failure in the work of a computer system, instead of increasing the price of gasoline by 3 cents, the machine began to sell fuel at a price of 3 cents per liter. For comparison, the average cost of a liter of gasoline in Germany is $ 2.10. It is reported by Prian.ru . In a record time, a long line lined up for this gas station.

The five largest companies in Wall Street will pay their employees $ 66 billion for 2007, including bonuses in the amount estimated at 39 billion, Bloomberg said. The average amount of payments will be 353.089 thousand dollars per person, the average amount of bonuses is 211.849 thousand. Merrill Lynch announced on Thursday that the amount of compensation is 64.2 thousand employees of the company will be 15.9 billion. According to the results of 2006, this indicator was $ 11.3 billion.

The Supreme Arbitration Court made a decision on Tuesday, which should make tenants be vigilant, writes Lessee.ru . An unregistered lease agreement may deprive the tenant of the premises, and the funds paid will have to be returned in court. The company, whose case turned out to be in you, lost the area rented for 10 years, not having time to pass the stage of the state registration of the transaction.

Two activists of the radical environmental organization SHEPERD are still in the hands of the Japanese whalers of the Yushin Maru 2, which captured them on Tuesday during an attempt to climb aboard this vessel. Negotiations on their release have not yet given the result, informed sources in Tokyo reported. The Japanese reject the requirement of “SHEPERD” to moor his schooner Steve Irvin to the whale to transfer the captured activists.

The first channel of German television ARD distributed information according to which at least 30 world -class athletes from different sports, including skiing, biathlon and cycling, are suspected of using the "blood doping", which they received in the Vienna Bank of Blood, Germanyru.com reports. The report stated that twenty of these thirty are German athletes, however, with the exception of four cyclists, no surnames were named.

The Spanish authorities agreed to extradition to Russia of the second suspect in the case of the murder of the governor of the Magadan region. In the near future, the issuance to the Russian authorities Martin Babakekhyan will be held, whom the investigation considers the accomplice of the custom -made murder of the Magadan Governor Valentin Tsvetkov, the website of the General Prosecutor's Office of the Russian Federation reports.