Five days a week at exactly 12 o’clock - about what happened today and what else should happen. The day is in full swing, we follow the events.

Elliot Carter In New York, at the age of 103, the famous American composer Elliot Carter died yesterday. He was awarded the prestigious Pulitzer Prize twice - in 1960 and 1973 in two of his string quartets. Carter wrote music until the last days of his life. He is the author of 158 works. The world premiere of one of his works for a chamber orchestra was scheduled for February.

Platon Lebedev in court The prosecutor's office appealed the decision of the Velsky court of the Arkhangelsk region to reduce the sentence of three years - from 13 to 10 years of imprisonment - the former co -owner of Yukos Platon Lebedev. This was reported today on the website of the Russian Prosecutor General’s Office. Prosecutors consider such a decrease in Lebedev’s punishment excessive. The court issued a corresponding decision on November 1, Lebedev’s defense did not dispute him.

The left -centric coalition was created by the party who won the parliamentary elections. The coalition united 78 out of 141 deputies of the Sejm and intends to form a government. This is reported from Vilnius by Radio Liberty correspondent Irina Peters.

Ilya Milstein Ukraine is not Georgia, where the president has actually retreated from power since next year, because of the results of the parliamentary elections could not greatly affect the arrangement of the Kyiv elites. Unless the Party of Regions would have failed in this election and the topic of impeachment arose, but there are no miracles, they are opposed by the administrative resource.

In the American state of California at the Kurin meat processing plant as a result of the shooting opened by one of its employees, three people were killed, four more were injured. The shooting - 42 -year -old Lawrence Jones is also among the dead. It is assumed that he committed suicide. The wounded are hospitalized in serious condition. The reasons why Jones opened fire on other employees of the enterprise in the middle of his work shift are still unclear.

Dmitry Medvedev and Oleg Kashin, January 18, 2011 Oleg Kashin, a journalist for the Kommersant Publishing House, identified a security guard of the Seliger youth forum in one of the attackers two years ago. On the night of the fifth to the sixth of November 2010, Kashin was brutally beaten. Dmitry Medvedev, who then held the presidency, took control of the investigation.

Yaroslav Hashki (1883 - 1923) In the Czech city of Lipnitsa-Snazava, work is underway to erect a monument to the writer Yaroslav Gasheku. The writer’s head from the eighteenth -ton block of sandstone with a height of three meters is carved by the sculptor Radomir Dvorzhak. The image that is planned to be installed in the middle of the meadow at the crossroads of roads will be called “Head 22” with an allusion to the anti -war novel by Joseph Heller “Culture 22”.

Sergey Shoigu is the former head of the Russian Ministry of Emergencies, then - Governor of the Moscow Region, now - Minister of Defense of the Russian Federation Russian President Vladimir Putin today dismissed the Minister of Defense Anatoly Serdyukov, appointing Sergey Shoigu Governor of the Moscow Region in his place. Putin himself reported this during a meeting with Shoigu.

Greece Prime Minister Antonis Samara In Greece today, a 48-hour universal strike begins in protest against new measures of strict savings aimed at overcoming a debt crisis. The work of transport will be suspended, including buses and trains, it is expected to be canceled by many flights. State institutions, banks, schools will also be closed. Workers of medical institutions will join the strike.

Cultural news and cultural essays. The permanent interlocutor of Ivan Tolstoy is a film and music critic Andrei Gavrilov. The interlocutors are intentionally subjective, they “read” the tape of events from their own angle. For competent judgments, they turn not to intermediaries, but to experts. Among the headings: “New Books”, “At the microphone Boris Paramonov”, “Cultural Memory”. Each release of the program accompanies new musical notes.

At least 27 people were killed in the Iraqi city in the Iraqi city of Taji north of Baghdad today, over 50 were injured. According to the authorities, the explosion was carried out by a suicide bomber in a mined car. Among the dead there are many military personnel. Yesterday, in the same area, the suicide bomber attacked the army patrol, 8 people were injured.

Radio Liberty, together with BG, begins to publish a cycle of materials about the urban environment and the painful transformations that it undergoes - in Moscow and not only. In the first issue - a story about the struggle for a carpet, an ad Board and an exhibition of children's drawings Radio Freedom should not earn money by placing advertising on its website, and does not want to spend it on buying advertising on strangers.

In the Parliament of Greece today, as expected, a vote on the issue of new measures of budget savings will be held. Among the measures offered by the government - raising the retirement age to 67 years, freezing the minimum salary, reducing a number of social payments and bonuses of civil servants. The adoption of these measures is necessary so that Greece suffering from a debt crisis is able to receive another tranche of loan from the EU and international financial organizations.

The passenger train "Bender - Chisinau" crashed at the railway crossing into the minibus, in which the guests of the wedding ceremony were. Four passengers died, six more were injured, among them - a pregnant woman. The crossing was not equipped with a barrier barrier, while the driver ignored the prohibitive traffic light. The disaster occurred at the village of New Meriences 25 kilometers from Chisinau.