Tatyana Voltskaya , St. Petersburg: On Sunday in St. Petersburg, the fifth International Winter Festival "Square" begins. This year, the festival, whose artistic director is the famous director Yuri Temirkanov, will be dedicated to Russian-American musical relations. The festival festival is the "Square of the Arts", where the Philharmonic, the Russian Museum, the Small Opera and Ballet Theater are located. The main idea is Russian -American musical ties.

President of Pakistan Perevez Musharraf accused Islamic extremists of organizing the second attempt to kill him in two weeks. The attempt occurred on Thursday in the city of Ravalpindi. The truck loaded with explosives crashed into the motorcade of Musharraf. The president’s car was damaged, but he himself was not injured. At least 12 people were killed, including two terrorists sitting in a truck. More than 40 people are injured.

Efim Fishtein , Prague: as you heard in the news release, the leader of the LDPR party Vladimir Zhirinovsky made a statement on December 26 that he did not intend to nominate his candidacy in the presidential election in March next year. Zhirinovsky elegantly solved the problem over which his political competitors were fighting.

The program is maintained by Andrei Shari. The correspondent of Radio Liberty Vladimir Dolin participates, he visited the press conference of the governor of St. Petersburg Valentina Matvienko, and the former candidate for governors of St. Petersburg Anna Markov, Dmitry President spoke with her. Andrei Shary: The governor of St. Petersburg Valentina Matvienko on Thursday first gathered journalists at the Moscow representative office of St. Petersburg.

Editor Irina Lagunina The program participates: Svetlana Semenova - historian, literary critic, IMLI RAS Anastasia Gacheva - philologist, head of the Museum -Library named after N.F. Fedorova Mikhail Panfilov - Head Gratitude to Mikhail Subbotin , USA In 1874, a quiet, shy person, Nikolai Fedorovich Fedorov, was accepted at the library of the Moscow Public and Rumyantsev Museums.

The leader of the LDPR Vladimir Zhirinovsky said at the party congress that he would not put forward his candidacy in the upcoming presidential election. The candidate from the Liberal Democratic Party will be one of the four members of the party proposed by the Higher Council. The decision will be made by secret vote.

In Chechnya in the village of Petropavlovskaya, the police department was fired last night. Two policemen from the Saratov region were killed, five were injured. In the Leninsky district of Grozny, two policemen and one soldier were wounded. All three were blown up on a home -made explosive device during engineering intelligence. The victims were taken to a military hospital.

The Basmanny Court of Moscow refused to satisfy the lawsuit of a citizen of the Netherlands Oleg Zhirov, who lost his wife as a result of a terrorist attack in the theater center on Dubrovka in the fall of 2002. Fat, in particular, asked him to appoint monthly benefits for the maintenance of two children. The total amount of the claim of the victim against the Russian government was 720 thousand euros. The lawyer of the victim Igor Trunov said that he would protest this court decision.

In Chechnya, in the forest under Gudermes, soldiers of the special forces company released a local resident stolen on December 23. Two abductors were detained. Two soldiers were injured. In the Staropromyslovsky district of Grozny, armed people in masks captured two citizens right at the bus stop today. In the Leninsky district of the Chechen capital, two policemen and one soldier were injured. All three were blown up on a radio -controlled explosive device during engineering intelligence.

Russia: Reforms of the year. Themes and events of the year. Overview of publications of the next issue of the British weekly "Economist". "Part 1 - Reforms of the Year." Sergey Seninsky: We decided to devote the final release of 2003 to two topics. Rather, many, but united in only two groups. In the first part of the release - reforms of the year. In the second - topics of the year. The conversation, of course, is only about economic reforms and topics.

North Korea is not against holding the second round of multilateral negotiations on its nuclear program next year, ”the Chinese State Agency of Sinhua said today. On Sunday, the details of future negotiations will discuss in Seoul diplomats from China, Russia, South Korea and Japan. American-Chinese consultations on the North Korean problem took place last week. All 6 countries participated in the first round of multilateral negotiations in Beijing in August this year.

More than five thousand people died in the southeast of Iran, where a powerful earthquake occurred early in the morning. 30 thousand were injured. Apparently, there will be even more victims. This data was given by the Irna State Information Agency with reference to the Governor of the Province of Kerman, where the disaster occurred. The force of underground shocks reached 6 and 3 tenths of the point on the Richter scale.

Maxim Yaroshevsky , Moscow: the new rector of the Russian State Humanitarian University was elected. He was the vice -rector for educational work, Valery Minaev, who received the majority of the votes at the conference in the educational institution - 146 out of 169 voting delegates. Thus, he replaced Leonid Nevzlin, the former rector of the Russian State Humanitarian University, and part -time co -owner of the Yukos company and Menatep Bank, and the companion of Mikhail Khodorkovsky.

The Government of the Republic of Bosnian Serbs has created a special commission to investigate the circumstances of the massacres of civilians of the city of Srebrenits in July 1995. The government announced today that it intends to "establish the whole truth" about the tragedy, which were the victims of about 7 thousand Muslims of the Srebrenitsa. They were destroyed by the detachments of the Bosnian Serbs who occupied the city.

The recent attempt on the President of Pakistan of the Musharraf Perevoz was organized by foreigners, ”said the Pakistani Minister of Information Sheikh Rashid Ahmed. According to him, at least one of the self-assassin terrorists who attacked Thursday on the motorcade of Musharraf in the city of Ravalpindi, was a citizen of a foreign state. The minister did not bring details. As a result of the attack, 14 people died. The president was not injured.