The human rights group "Reporters without borders" announced a serious deterioration in the situation with freedom of speech in Azerbaijan after the presidential election in October. Human rights activists, in particular, are concerned about the fate of the editor of the Opposition newspaper Yeni Musavat Rauf Arifoglu, who was arrested for participating in protests who followed the elections. On December 1, the journalist began a hunger strike in prison.

Yuri Zhigalkin , New York: a year after the adoption of the construction project where the twin towers stood, the New York authorities announced that the design of the main component of the project-the highest building in the world-will be radically changed in order to take into account the aesthetic, economic and even psychological considerations.

The son of the former Minister of Finance Dagestan Hamida Hamidov, a stolen finance minister, was released in Khasavyurt. According to Radio Liberty, on Wednesday evening, Jamala Gamidov pushed out of the car that the police pursued. Now the eleven -year -old boy is in the hospital - he is exhausted.

In the Italian city of Moden, a car, parked at the synagogue, exploded this morning. According to agencies, the driver - citizen of Jordan died. Two policemen guarding the synagogue first noticed a fire in the car and tried to knock it down. They managed to move immediately before the explosion occurred.

The leaders of Germany and Poland - Gerhard Schreder and Alexander Kvasnevsky - held negotiations in Berlin, trying to overcome disagreements on the project of the Constitution of the European Union. The results of the meeting are unknown. Germany supports a project that enhances its influence on decision -making in the European Union - compared with the contract concluded three years ago at the EU summit in Nice.

65 million girls around the world are not able to go to school, ”the UN children's fund reports. As UNICEF emphasizes, such a situation is unacceptable, everyone has the right to learn. The UN notes that countries where women do not have the same education rights with men are slowed down in economic development.

Today, 85 years old is the Russian writer and Laureate of the Nobel Prize Alexander Solzhenitsyn. Solzhenitsyn is the author of the story “One Day of Ivan Denisovich” and the book “Archipelago Gulag”, after the publication of which he was expelled from the Soviet Union in 1974. In 1990, citizenship was returned to him, and four years later the writer returned to Russia. Alexander Solzhenitsyn is a full member of the Russian Academy of Sciences and founder of the literary prize of his own name.

German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder and President of Poland Alexander Kvasnevsky today in negotiations in Berlin are trying to overcome disagreements on the project of the Constitution of the European Union. Earlier, Kvasnevsky said in an interview with BBC that he could block the document if he reduces the influence of Poland on the decision-making of the EU.

The program is conducted by Arslan Saidov. The correspondent of Radio Freedom Lyubov Chizhova takes part. Arslan Saidov: In Moscow, on the day of human rights, the results of the Andrei Sakharov contest "For journalism as an act" were summed up. His laureate posthumously became the journalist of the "weekly magazine" Galina Kovalskaya. Says Lyubov Chizhova: Lyubov Chizhova: The competition "Journalism as an act" is held in Russia for the third year.

US President George Bush again stated that only companies in the countries participating in a military operation in Iraq should receive contracts for the restoration of the Iraq economy. The representative of the European Commission Reio Kempinen called Washington’s actions a “political mistake”. He emphasized that the European Commission will check how 26 contracts concluded by temporary American authorities in Iraq with foreign firms comply with the WTO rules.

In Geneva, the presidents of Armenia and Azerbaijan Robert Kocharian and Ilham Aliyev discussed the problem of resolving the Karabakh conflict. The meeting was held on Thursday on the sidelines of the UN organized conference on information technology. After negotiations, the Azerbaijani president said that both parties are ready to continue the dialogue. This is the first meeting between Kocharian and Aliyev, which was elected to his post in October.

The World Trade Organization may impose sanctions against the United States in response to the decision of the American authorities - to prevent a company from countries that opposed the military operation of the Allies. The representative of the European Commission Reio Kempinen called Washington’s actions a “political mistake”.

The host of the St. Petersburg hour of the Liberty Live program Tatyana Valovich: we guest from Anna Markova, a former vice-governor of St. Petersburg. Anna Borisovna, delayed, that, traffic jams on the roads again? Anna Markova: Yes, traffic jams, and very serious. Tatyana Valovich: That is, the situation in St. Petersburg does not change?

In Moscow, more than 30 members of the National Bolshevik Party were detained and were detained today, its leader Eduard Limonov told Interfax. According to him, the Limonovites were detained at the headquarters of the party by the riot police detachment. The crew of the Ukrainian television company "1+1" was also detained. According to the Moscow Central Internal Affairs Directorate, most detainees did not have documents on registration in the capital.

In Germany, the police are conducting a large -scale operation to detain activists of the prohibited Islamist group "Caliphate". More than 5 thousand police officers took part in the raids, about a thousand apartments and private houses were subjected to a search. The number of arrested has not yet been reported. "Caliphate" was banned two years ago - after the attacks of September 11 in the United States.