The British consulting company Maplecroft, whose experts are analyzing the political map of the world on the basis of about 100 risk factors, compiled a rating of countries taking into account the "terrorist threat index." This index was developed for international companies and evaluates not only the probability of a terrorist attack, but also mass deaths, reports Newsru Israel .

After the fourth competitive day of the Winter Olympiad in Vancouver, the leader of Germany, whose athletes won three Vancouver’s gold, became the leader in Vancouver. The Korea team (3-1-0) rose to the second position, on the third line are the Olympic Switzerland (3-0-1). Russia still divides the 19-20th place with the Croatian team with one bronze. According to the total number of medals ahead of Germany athletes (9).

Banks are gradually returning to the market for mortgage lending to Russia, which gradually restores activity. However, the conditions for the provision of loans for the purchase of housing in connection with the crisis were tightened, primarily interest rates, which causes preoccupation of the authorities. The mechanical decrease in mortgage rates, not supported by an increase in housing construction, will turn into an increase in prices for apartments, writes "Independent Gazeta" .

The rental rates of premium offices in London decreased earlier than in New York, Hong Kong or Tokyo. They also began to recover first, mainly due to the demand from foreign investors, writes Prian.ru . The growth of rental rates in London began in the second half of 2009, Bloomberg reports with reference to the CB Richard Ellis consulting agency. According to experts of the agency, in 2010 the tendency to increase demand for "high -quality" offices will continue.

Today, the coaching headquarters of the Russian national team published a list of players caused to prepare for the friendly match of the Russian national team with the Hungarian team, which will be held on March 3 in Dior, beginning at 21.30 Moscow time, the RFU official website reports. Goalkeepers: Igor Akinfeev (CSKA), Vladimir Gabulov (Dynamo).

The Apple iPhone 3GS smartphone marks markedly in performance of its younger competitor - Google Nexus One. These, according to infox.ru , are the results of synthetic tests conducted by the developers of the mobile software from the British company Distinctive Development.

The women's Canadian Kerling team is the favorite of the Olympic Games in Vancouver. However, it differs from its competitors not only in experience and skill. The fact is that one of the athletes of the Canadian team - thirty -year -old Christie Moore - is already in the sixth month of pregnancy. The athlete’s performance in such an obvious “interesting situation” is the second case in the history of the Olympic Games, ITAR -TASS notes.

18 children of one of the kindergartens with suspicion of food poisoning cottage cheese entered the Priyargun district hospital in the Trans -Baikal Territory. “Eating poisoning is not excluded. According to preliminary information, children could be poisoned by cottage cheese,” Svetlana Lapa told Interfax on Wednesday. According to her, experts work in kindergarten, they find out the circumstances of the case.

The bill proposed by the President on the support of non -profit organizations is supplemented by amendments to United Russia on the right of religious organizations to state assistance. In addition, these organizations will be able to receive socially oriented status. About this newspaper Vedomosti was told by the head of the State Duma Committee on Public Associations and Religious Organizations Sergey Popov.

The Swede Bjorn Ferry won the pursuit race in Biathlon competitions at the Olympic Games in Vancouver. A distance of 12.5 km of Ferry, starting under the 8th number, overcame on Tuesday with the best time 33 minutes 38.4 seconds. At four firing lines, he made one miss, RIA Novosti reports. The second place was taken by the Austrian Christoph Zumann (2 misses), lagging behind the winner for 16.5 seconds.

Journalists found out the personality of a person who posted on the Internet the so -called list of "auto -coapons" in Latvia - a list of personal data of car owners living in the country and decorating their cars with Russian symbols. It turned out to be a 66-year-old American Latvian origin. The specified man lives in the city of De-Memin in Iowa, established the Latvian newspaper Telegraf.lv .

The prosecutor's office of the Southern District of New York put on Wednesday a new charge to Russian citizen Viktor Butu , whom the press calls the "weapons baron." It is reported by RIA "Novosti" , referring to the received press release.

More than half of the Americans - 52% - believe that US President Barack Obama does not deserve re -election for a second term in 2012. These are the survey data conducted on February 12-15 CNN . Another 44% of respondents are ready to support the president in two and a half years. The remaining 4% did not express their opinion. Americans who are ready to vote for Obama again are slightly less than those who generally support him. The president had 49% of supporters and 50% of opponents.

The Governor of the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug Yuri Neelov, whose powers expire in March, turned to the President of the Russian Federation Dmitry Medvedev with a request not to consider his candidacy for a new term. "On February 12, it turned up exactly 16 years as I have been guided by a district. This is more than three terms. The Russian president made a fundamental decision to update the governor’s corps so that the governors do not lead the regions for more than three terms.

The fight against corruption led to an unexpected result: giving bribes became more dangerous than taking. According to the Supreme Court of Russia, last year more than 3,000 people were convicted that someone was given a bribe. The bribe takers themselves were judged less often. 2300 people were convicted of receiving the bribe, and the vast majority of them were punished for a real trifle. Every tenth of the convicted bribe takers took less than 500 rubles.