The reason for the fire in the Latvian boarding house, as a result of which 25 people were killed last Friday, was an unbridled cigarette, and not heating devices, as previously expected, Echo of Moscow reports. In this regard, the country's Prime Minister Aigar Kalvitis demanded immediately to ban smoking in medical institutions. In a fire in a boarding house, located 180 km from Riga, 25 people were killed. On February 28, it was announced in Latvia during the day of mourning .

The Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said that he was worried about the frequent statements about the possibility of impact on Iran, RIA Novosti reports. "Fathed out, and this is bothering, forecasts, predictions, that Iran could be struck by Iran. In particular, the US Vice -President made such an opportunity in his recent statements," Lavrov said at a meeting of the President of the Russian Federation with members of the Cabinet of Ministers. “What blows are we talking about?

Today in Saudi Arabia four France citizens were killed, RIA Novosti reports with reference to the Saudi news agency. The attack was committed when the French group stopped on vacation in a desert 15 km from the city of Medin in the west of the country. Two men were shot in place, two more died on the way to the hospital. Three women and two children who were with them were not injured. Saudi security forces are searching for attackers.

On the eve of the defender of the Fatherland Day, the law enforcement agencies of Moscow prevented a large terrorist attack, reports Petrovka38.ru . On February 22, 2007, at the bus stop in the north-west of the capital, employees of the UBOP in a joint operation with the FSB of Russia were detained by the 29-year-old resident of Makhachkala Farid Magomedov. In the portfire bag, the operatives found a home-made explosive device (IEA) with a capacity of 500 grams in TNT equivalent.

Mikhail Kasyanov should appear to the Prosecutor General today, Echo Moscow reports. He will take testimonies in the case of Senator Andrei Vavilov, who is accused of embezzlement of more than two hundred million dollars, which were allocated to buy several fighters for India. Meanwhile, some observers do not exclude that this challenge to the prosecutor’s office may become the beginning of the criminal prosecution of Kasyanov himself.

The leaders of the two parties agreed on the joint reform of the OOP, which will become the only body representing Palestinians in the international arena, RIA Novosti reports. “We agreed to reform the OOP as the only body representing the Palestinian people in the world, in particular, with regard to the activities of the OOP on the return of refugees,” said Khamas, the head of the Politburo of the Khaled Mashaal, said in Moscow during meetings with the Palestinian diaspora.

Swiss tennis player Rozhe Federer broke a record for the duration of stay in the first place in the Att. According to Gazeta.Ru with reference to Reuters, the record is 161 weeks. The holder of the past achievement, the American athlete Jimmy Connors, managed to stay on the first line of the rating for a week less - from July 1974 to August 1977. The record series of Federer began on February 2, 2004.

The former prime minister, and now an opposition politician who wants to fight for the presidency in 2008, Mikhail Kasyanov was questioned at the Prosecutor General. Within 40 minutes, Kasyanov was interrogated as a witness in the case of the former First Deputy Minister of Finance, Senator Andrei Vavilov. After that, Kasyanov left the building of the Office for the investigation of particularly important cases in Technical Lane without any problems.

** either raised, or set up ** The main event that attracted the attention of the media last week were unexpected personnel permits conducted by President Vladimir Putin on February 15. If at the first moment a real shock caused the appearance of a furnituremist as Minister of Defense and replacement of an honest policeman Alkhanov as president of Chechnya former action movie Kadyrov, then comments on these topics were quickly exhausted. What is not surprising: there is nothing to comment on.

In the capital of Bangladesh Dakke, a fire broke out in one of the multi -storey buildings, where there are offices of two private television companies RTV and NTV, as well as the editorial board of the local Amar Desh newspaper, Reuters reports. At the moment, there is a fire extinguishing and the evacuation of people from the building. The reason for the fire and the size of damage caused by fire are not yet known.

In the city of Ramadi, in the west of Iraq, a terrorist-suicide bomber has driven an explosive device near a police checkpoint, AR reports. As a result of the explosion, 13 people died, 10 were injured. Details of the incident are not reported.

On Sakhalin, four convicts serving criminal sentences in a penal colony number 1 announced the application of violence by the institution’s officials, RIA Novosti reports. A pre -investigation check has begun on this fact.

The British Defense Minister announced today the decision to increase the number of British peacekeepers in Afghanistan by sending an additional contingent of 1,400 troops there, AP reports . According to him, this decision is due to the need to confront the Taliban movement, which has already announced that 2007 will be the bloodiest year for foreign soldiers in Afghanistan. Now the number of British troops in Afghanistan will reach 7.7 thousand by 2009.

According to the BBC , citing Journal of Neuroscience, American researchers led by Dr. Bruce Hope from the National Institute of Drug Administration found that long smoking leads to changes in the brain of those that causes cocaine. Scientists investigated samples of brain tissue, taken from 24 deceased people, eight of which smoked all their lives, they smoked and abandoned eight, and never smoked eight, and all these people died from the reasons that were not related to nicotine.

Employees of the investigative-operational group of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia conducted searches in the premises of the Federal Agency for Construction and Housing and Communal Services located in Moscow on Stroitelov Street, Gazeta.Ru reports.