More than half of the Iraqi living in the capital of the Arab Emirates voted on the first of three days of elections to the National Assembly of their homeland, RIA Novosti reports. More than 50% of 3 thousand Iraqi registered here came to the polling station at the Sheikh stadium in the city of Abu Dhabi. The international and local observers present on the site did not record any violations and noted the open and even nature of the vote according to 111 lists of candidates.

Putin in Krakow held a working meeting with Israeli President Moshe Katsava, RIA Novosti reports.

The head of the secret police of the former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet Manuel Contreras was sent to prison for 12 years for the abduction and disappearance of the Levakian rebel, Gazeta.Ru reports with reference to Reuters . The Supreme Court confirmed the verdict of the 75-year-old Contraoras in November last year, but its execution was made only on Friday due to bureaucratic red tape.

At the airport of Nizhny Novgorod on Friday, 10 aircraft were forced to land in connection with poor weather conditions in Moscow, Gazeta.Ru reports. According to the representative of the airport dispatch service, all planes were sent to Moscow from the cities of Siberia and the Far East. The first plane landed on the night of Friday. At the moment, about 600 people are expected at the Nizhny Novgorod airport.

On January 27, in the framework of the Public Lectures “Polit.ru” cycle , the head of the Social Research Department of the Institute of Public Design Mikhail Tarusin with the report “The Middle Class and Stratification of Russian Society” spoke.

The state prosecutor Dmitry Shokhin today asked the court to extend the term of the ex-head of the Yukos NK Mikhail Khodorkovsky in custody until May 14, 2005, RBC reports.

In Iraq, a ban on election campaigning comes into force. This, according to the reports of the Kuwaiti news agency, said on Thursday the representative of the Central Election Commission of Iraq Farid Ayar. "From Friday, a ban on the coverage of the activities of parties participating in the elections comes into force," the Central Election Commission said in a statement. Universal elections in the country will take place on Sunday.

People's Deputy of Ukraine Alexander Treteyakov was appointed the first assistant to the President of Ukraine, RIA Novosti reports. The deputy head of the central election headquarters of Viktor Yushchenko was the rangers during the election campaign for the election of the President of Ukraine, where he answered financial issues.

Within the framework of the Davos forum, two special sessions dedicated to Russia will be held. Deputy Prime Minister of the Russian Federation Alexander Zhukov will take part in them. Participants of the first, entitled "Russian riddle" will discuss the prospects for the development of the Russian economy, which, according to the organizers of the forum, remains "a mystery" for outsiders.

The Prime Minister of the Palestinian National Administration Ahmed Kurea forbade civilians to wear weapons. In parallel, PNA security forces intend to move to the south of the gas sector and restore order in the areas from which Israeli settlements are fired, AR reports. In the gas sector and on the western coast, members of the Hamas, Islamic Jihad and other similar organizations often wear weapons, so the police will need to carefully monitor compliance with the ban.

Unknown works of one of the founders of the abstract art of Vasily Kandinsky are presented at the exhibition, which opened at the Museum of Personal Collections on Volkhonka, reports Newsru.com. Six watercolors and drawings of the painter and graphics are provided for the show of the Kirov Art Museum named after Vasnetsov and the Yaransky Museum of Local Lore, located in the Kirov region. Work from the Yaransky Museum of Local Lore for a long time was considered the works of an unknown author.

The security service subordinate to Ramzan Kadyrov, having lost the functions of the first person’s protection of the republic, will significantly lose its influence, the Kommersant newspaper writes.

President of the RFU Vyacheslav Koloskov, who yesterday filed a petition for retired, told in an interview with Football about some relations with the Federal Agency for Physical Culture, Sports and Tourism. “Fetisov for me, in general, a person who has absolutely no authority and influence,” he says. - On the contrary, I emphasize, we paid for three years, here is a paradox, taxes from our activities 80 million rubles. And Fetisov’s department returned to us 40 million.

The head of the protection of the President Akhmad Kadyrov, who died as a result of the terrorist attack, Ramzan Kadyrov proposed to the new President of Chechnya, for whom a new security service is being created, to allocate 60 people to ensure his personal security. Alkhanov refused. This was reported by Radio "Freedom" .

In Moscow, a suspicious item in which an explosive device may be located on the Bank of Moscow, located on the Kuznetsk Bridge on the street, is located on the Kuznetsk Bridge Street, RIA Novosti reports. The alarm was received at 16.35. All operational services of the city have left for the bank.