About three thousand consumers were disconnected from electricity in the center of Paris on Thursday evening due to the fire of underground cables. It is reported by RIA Novosti with reference to local media. Disconnects of electricity occurred in the very heart of Paris, in the first district near the Louvre: Rivoli and Sant-Oonor streets are affected. These are tourist streets on which there are many prestigious stores.

In China, the number of victims of the strongest earthquake of magnitude of 8 points on the Richter scale, the epicenter of which was in Venchuan of the Southwestern province of Sichuan, continues to grow in China. As the vice-governor of this province Lee Chanyun said on Friday, the number of those killed at the moment already exceeded 55 thousand people, over 281 thousand local residents were injured.

Russia intends to bring trade with China to 60 billion before 2010, said Russian President Dmitry Medvedev in Beijing, summing up the results of his first official visit to this country. "According to experts, the goal that has been declared the level of turnover up to $ 60 billion by 2010 can be reached earlier," D. Medvedev said. Now the turnover with China is 48.2 billion dollars. It grew by 40.8%, the PRC reached third among the economic partners of Russia.

The Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs refuted the existence of “black lists” of Ukrainian politicians, which, supposedly, was also included in the first deputy minister of justice of Ukraine Yevgeny Korniychuk. “We are against the fact that there are any“ black lists, ”Boris Malakhov, Deputy Official Representative of the Russian Foreign Ministry, told Interfax on Friday.

The classic of science fiction 83-year-old Harry Harrison, who participated in the International Congress of Eurocon-2008 science fictions in Moscow, spoke in an interview with RBC Daily about his concern to the modern cultural and political life of America.

The presidential administration officer Valery Boevs withdrew a lawsuit about protecting honor and dignity for television and radio -radioious Vladimir Solovyov. The lawyers of the journalist are confident that the reason for the recall is the reluctance to publish new testimonies of the pressure of the presidential administration to the courts.

In Indonesia, 8 soldiers attacked a couple in love, forcing the groom to rape their bride. The military photographed the cameras of their mobile phones. A terrible story occurred in the Indonesian province of Papua and already stirred the local community. The crime became known from the parishioners of the church in the city of Japur, who complained to the military human rights defenders, the Radio New Zealand International radio station reports.

"United Russia" seized for the idea of ​​returning the food coupon system. The party is sure that the coupons will help to solve two problems at once: to support low -income citizens and agriculture. However, experts see the Soviet “rake” in the distribution system - the poor will have to buy a limited set of scarce goods, and low quality, the newspaper Vedomosti writes.

At the military airfield of the military unit N17232 in the Lodein Field of the Leningrad Region, or rather, in the warehouse of ammunition, a strong fire began in the afternoon on Friday. As Interfax said in the evening with reference to a source in the headquarters of the 6th Air Force and Air Defense Army, which belongs to the warehouse, all 450 air -air missiles stored there were destroyed as a result of the fire.

The British Construction contractors have condemned the government plans to create eco-city, believing that this undertaking will lead to "an increase in carbon release into the atmosphere," Prian.ru reports. One of the first acts of Gordon Brown as the prime minister was an announcement of the construction of five new eco-city in England and Wales for the same number of existing ones.

Sensations in the field of Russian art will take place in the near future, on Thursday the general director of the auction house "Sotheby's Russia and the CIS" Mikhail Kamensky, on the eve of the Moscow exhibition of top-lots of the upcoming June trading of the auction house in London, said RIA "Novosti" .

The mongrel, playing the role of Mumu in the performance of the Small Drama Theater of St. Petersburg, is looking for the second day in the Northern Capital, RIA Novosti reports on Friday with reference to the statement of the theater press service. The dog named Chamomile - a small red -haired mongrel with big black eyes - has been going on stage for ten years in the play based on Turgenev’s work, the agency’s interlocutor said.

The third appeal court of Austin (Texas) decided on Thursday that the state authorities did not have the right to take away children from the Mormon sectarian parents, since there were no necessary reasons: there is no convincing evidence that the children were subjected to sexual violence, the Ar.

In St. Petersburg, police detained four natives of Central Asia, suspected of brutal beating of their acquaintance. The brawl began when the men faced the question of which movie to watch. The victim was broken by his head, which is why he subsequently died. On suspicion of murder, the operatives of the “slaughter” department of the Krasnoselsky police department detained four men, Fontanka.ru reports with reference to the agency of journalistic investigations of openwork.

Two 11-year-old schoolchildren disappeared in the Sverdlovsk district of Krasnoyarsk, a representative of the Main Directorate of the Krasnoyarsk Territory said on Friday RIA Novosti . We note this is the second case of the loss of schoolchildren in a week. According to the representative of the Central Internal Affairs Directorate, boys study in the same class. It is known that yesterday they did not return home from school.