Today in Russia they recall a wonderful poet, actor and singer Vladimir Vysotsky, who made himself a stretched nerve of the society of yesterday’s Russia and who remained in the modern world. January 25 marks the 70th anniversary of the birth of a famous artist.

In the city of Ivanovo today, court hearings began in the case of an attack in June last year on the head of the Jewish community and the Canadian rabbi with his wife. As the chairman of the national-cultural and religious Jewish autonomy Erwin Kirshtein told the Interfax agency, last summer the rabbi from Montreal Zvi Khershkovich came to get acquainted with the Ivanovo Jewish center.

In Japan, a video format with a resolution of 7680 by 4320 pixels and 22-channel audio was developed. The authors called their creation Super Hi-Vision or Ultra High-Definition TV, reports the BBC . This video format is expected to become standard by 2025, but Japanese authorities have already allocated almost $3 billion to researchers so that the project will be launched before 2015. To display images with such a high resolution, a display with a diagonal of 500 inches (12.7 m) was created.

George Bush’s budget request for 2009, which the US President will present to the American Congress on February 4, will include $ 750 million to develop and create a prototype of a new type of combat hypersonic aircraft, including for possible use in the “quick global strike” program, RIA Novosti said.

Bookmakers consider Russian Mary Sharapova an unconditional favorite of the final match of the Australian Open Tennis Championship against Serbka Ani Ivanovich, RIA Novosti reports. It will be possible to earn good money on the victory of Sharapova (5th sowing) in the British office of William Hill, only by setting a large amount, because the coefficient is only 1.22 (22 kopecks of pure winnings at a rate of one ruble).

In Spain, a system began to operate, which allows the police to determine the presence of the driver of the compulsory car insurance policy. The radar installed on the patrol car reads the numbers of cars moving along the highway and checks them through the database. Thus, it becomes known whether the car whose number was photographed by the radar, insurance. If there is no policy, traffic inspectors stop the vehicle and send it to the parking lot.

One of the employees of the Embassy of Latvia in Russia was declared Persona Nongrat in response to a recent expulsion of the Russian diplomat from Riga. The diplomat, whose name is not reported, is ordered to leave Russia within two days. "On January 25, the Russian Ambassador of Latvia to Moscow Andris Teikmanis was called to the Russian Foreign Ministry.

The working group of the CEC of the Russian Federation intends to consider the objections of the election headquarters of the ex-Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov about his “rejected” signatures , Elena Dikun, Advisor Kasyanova, told Interfax . The Central Election Commission nevertheless leaves Mikhail Kasyanov a ghostly hope for registration with a presidential candidate. This will happen if the objections of the ex-prime minister on the deferent sheets are taken into account.

The producers revealed a few secrets associated with the new adventure of Agent James Bond, which should appear on cinema screens this year. In particular, they reported the name of the new picture - "Quantum of Solace), which there were so many rumors, CNN reports.

Before the American invasion of Iraq in 2003, Saddam Hussein incorrectly evaluated the intentions of President Bush, for a long time believing that America would not carry out a ground operation in Iraqi territory to overthrow his regime. This was stated by the US FBI agent George Pir, who interrogated the former president of Iraq, captured by the Americans in December 2003 and hanged in December 2006, ITAR-TASS reports.

The British Council represented by his press secretary Anthony Watson explained that he closed branches in St. Petersburg and Yekaterinburg in order to prevent intimidation of his employees from the Russian authorities. Branches will resume work only on condition of guarantees of their safety.

In Moscow, a group of young people who are suspected of killing two people on the basis of national enmity was arrested, ITAR-TASS reports citing law enforcement agencies of the capital. In mid-January 2008, near house No. 93 on Altufevskoye Shosse with multiple stab wounds, a man was discovered, who subsequently died in the hospital. Also, on Novgorodskaya Street, the body of another man was found, who, as the forensic examination established, died of such injuries.

Prime Minister Viktor Zubkov yesterday created a "special working group" to combat inflation, which in January will exceed 2% . The prime minister found the last proposals of Mart and the Ministry of Finance "not fully responding tasks of regulating inflationary processes." The group will begin its work with the extension of the moratorium on the increase in prices for socially significant food products, which operates until January 31, 2008, Kommersant reports.

The film about the life of the famous French singer Edith Piaf “Life in Pink” (the original name “La Mome” - “Girl”) director Olivier Daan will be presented in 11 nominations for the prestigious “Cesar” premium, French actor Jean Rocher, who will conduct the award ceremony this year.

The forward of Boston Kevin Garnett became the most popular basketball player following the voting results of fans who chose the starting compositions for the match of all the stars of the NBA, which will be held on February 17 in New Orleans. The veteran "Celtics" scored 2,339,148 votes, which is more than 290,317 than that of LeBland James (2 108 831), who finished the second, who won last year's voting.