Over the past half -century, US residents have considered Ronald Reagan the best president, reports Washington Profile . The former actor scored 28% of the vote. Behind him with a small margin follows Bill Clinton with 25% and John Kennedy (18%). This three was significantly broken from the rest of the owners of the White House. Harry Truman scored 7% of the vote, Jimmy Carter and Dwight Eisenhower only 5% each.

Vladimir Putin met with the Brazilian writer Paolo Coelho in his residence in Novo-Ogravo, RIA Novosti reports. Vladimir Putin and Paulo Coelho agreed that the Russians and the Brazilians are very similar to each other. The president did not "torment his impressions of the book" of "the Brazilian writer, but noted that the popularity of Paulo Coelho's books in Russia is Nesluchan.

The United States has suspended the provision of financial assistance to the authorities of Serbia on the basis that “Belgrade in the last year poorly cooperated with the international tribunals in the former Yugoslavia in the Hague,” Gazeta.Ru reports with reference to ITAR-TASS.

Alla Makhrova Center for Demography and Human Ecology Institute of People's Economic Forecasting of the Russian Academy of Sciences Electronic version of the ballot "Population and society" 117418, Moscow, Nakhimovsky Ave., 47, Inp RAS; Phone (095) 332-4289; Fax (095) 718-9771 My dear Moscow: the price of prestige: a golden mile, a golden triangle, the Golden Island ...: Housing and territorial stratification of Muscovites: Construction boom in the near Moscow region: who buys housing in the

**Either buying or selling** An unprecedented deal planned by Severstal head Alexei Mordashev - the merger of the Russian steel giant with the Luxembourg company Arcelor - aroused the keen interest of both the world and Russian press. If the merger succeeds - and it is by no means guaranteed due to the fierce opposition of the powerful "steel king" Mr. Mittal - the world's largest steel company will emerge on the market with an annual production of approximately 70 million tons.

Simon Cordonsky At the numerous requests of readers, the OGA publishing house published the second edition of Simon Cordon’s book “Administrative Markets of the USSR and Russia”. We publish a fragment of his fundamental book of 1996. We chose a chapter dedicated to intelligence and intelligentsia as subjects of the “administrative market” and as factors of the transition from the Soviet system to the Russian.

In the capital of East Timor, riots continue. This morning, more than a thousand looters plundered government warehouses with household appliances, office equipment, office furniture and other goods, RBC reports with reference to the AR. It is reported that the robbers loaded the goods into the cars and took away in an unknown direction. Now in East Timor there are more than 2 thousand foreign peacekeepers who cannot cope with the atrocities of the looters.

Hundreds of Shiite Muslims in response to a satirical program, in which the leader of the Hezbollah group, Sheikh Hassan Nasell, was ridiculed, staged pogroms in Beirut. This was reported by local police and eyewitnesses, reports AR . It is reported that hundreds of protesters took to the streets in the southern part of Beirut, where there are especially many supporters of Hezbollah. They burned car tires and blocked the roads.

President of Ukraine Viktor Yushchenko instructed the Prosecutor General’s Office of the country to appeal in the courts the decision of local authorities to grant the Russian language the status of the regional, RIA Novosti reports. According to the presidential press service, Yushchenko appreciates, while the Verkhovna Rada leads to the oath of judges of the Constitutional Court, so that they explain to the deputies of local authorities, which is within their competence.

Russia never believed that the South Kuril Islands should give to Japan, Vladimir Putin said. “I must say that Russia never thought at all that it should give the islands,” said the Russian president at a meeting with the leaders of the news agencies of the Eight countries, answering the question of the head of Kyodo Tsusin, Satoshi Isikawa, regarding the territorial problem.

Minister of Education and Science of the Russian Federation Andrei Fursenko and US Minister of Education Margaret Spellings signed a memorandum of expanding cooperation in the field of education and exchange programs. “Earlier, the exchange of students, teachers, and schoolchildren between our countries was chaotic and spontaneous.

At a meeting with the leaders of the news agencies of the Eight countries, Vladimir Putin said that those “Western friends” who supported the “orange” events should pay for what is happening in Ukraine, RIA Novosti reports. “Our Western friends supported the“ orange ”events in Ukraine. The fact that all this time is happening there now, we see very well - there are many problems. If you support what is happening there, then you will pay. Why should we pay?

Over the last nine months, the popularity of online diaries among Russian Internetmen has doubled. Such data are given in his report by the Romir Monitoring holding. The May survey 1537 of active users of the network aged eighteen years showed: 61% of Internetmen are aware of what blogs are. There are more people who have heard more among men than among women (66% versus 53%). Back in September last year, only 38% of users could decipher the abbreviation.

Billionaires Mikhail Friedman and Victor Vekselberg decided to share the profit “TNK-BP Holding” with minority. The very first dividends of this company can become a record for Russia-they will amount to $ 5 billion, of which about $ 250 million will have to share the TNK-BP holding minority shareholders. Until now, the main owners of TNK-BP have taken the entire profit of the company, the Vedomosti newspaper writes today.

Yesterday, at a meeting of the government, dedicated to the activities of the Ministry of Industry, Prime Minister Mikhail Fradkov unexpectedly raised the issue of reconstruction of the Ministry of Trade. The Ministry of Economic Development immediately and sharply negatively reacted to the idea of ​​the prime minister, who questioned the existence of Mart in his current form. Observers associate these events with a weakening of the positions of Hermann Gref.