Seven German soldiers died near Kabul German Defense Minister Peter Struck ruled out that the crash of a Bundeswehr helicopter on Saturday during a routine flight over Kabul was due to shelling from the ground. Seven German soldiers were killed in the disaster; the report of the head of the Kabul police about the death of two Afghan children was not confirmed. Germany exercises so-called tactical command of the international peacekeeping brigade in the Afghan capital.

A French court sentenced billionaire George Soros to a fine of 2.2 million euros. The court found him guilty of fraud and use of insider information during a failed attempt to acquire the French bank Societe Generale, undertaken 14 years ago, RBC reports. The verdict was pronounced in the absence of the accused. Soros has already stated that he intends to challenge the court verdict.

Polish National Opera on tour at the Bolshoi Theater Only the lazy would not call the exchange tours between the Warsaw and Moscow Bolshoi Theaters successful. The standing ovation at the finale of the last Warsaw performance (“Eugene Onegin”) on the Moscow stage was long and not accidental.

In the last couple of weeks of the outgoing year, more often than ever, we think about what we are missing in life, what we have achieved and what we need to strive for next. This is the right time to give up on all the troubles and forget yourself, plunging into the New Year's bustle of searching for worthy gifts for your friends, relatives and loved ones.

Our team remained in third place For the second year in a row, the fate of the Baltika Cup winner was determined in the last match. The tournament was crowned by a meeting between the national teams of Russia and the Czech Republic. Once again, the main trophy went to the guests, although they lost in a series of free throws. Regular time ended in a draw - 3:3.

Christmas is being sacrificed to Western political correctness Christmas, the main holiday of the Western world, may fall victim to overzealous guardians of political correctness. The Department of Education of the Canadian city of Toronto has already banished it from school calendars, replacing it with “Winter Festival”. And they tried to officially rename the Christmas tree, which, thank God, is still installed these days in front of the city government, into a holiday tree.

Ministry of Education proposes to give students more rights Student self-government can once again return to Russian schools. Moreover, approximately in the form in which it was described in the legendary “Republic of SHKID”.

From January 1, Rostelecom will increase tariffs for long-distance communication services for budget organizations in Moscow by an average of 20%. According to the MAP decision, tariffs for public sector employees are increased in order to eliminate cross-subsidization and subsidization of their income from the provision of services to commercial organizations. This will allow Rostelecom to pursue a more flexible tariff policy in the Moscow market in the future. "TIME FOR NEWS"

A company close to Nikita Mikhalkov is suing SIBUR The next round of the struggle for property with the participation of the petrochemical holding SIBUR is about to begin in the Volgograd region. Tomorrow the regional arbitration court is due to consider the claim of the local enterprise Kaustik against SIBUR. "Kaustik" asks to invalidate the holding's purchase of the property complex of the Volzhskoye Khimvolokno enterprise (production of polyamide threads and fibers).

Defender of Milan and the Georgian national team Kakhi Kaladze will open a football academy for young talents in Tbilisi in 2003. In a conversation with a correspondent of the Vremya Novostey newspaper, he said that he was implementing his idea with the help of Italian partners. This will be a sports school of European standards. Now in Tbilisi, even balls are a problem for young football players.

Although Belarusian guys don’t want to serve in Chechnya The two presidents, Belarusian and Russian, who held difficult negotiations in the Moscow region on November 28, intend to meet again next year in January to continue the complex discussion of problems related to the construction of a unified state. The press secretary of the Belarusian president, Natalya Petkevich, said that the meeting was planned. Lukashenko and Putin were supposed to meet at the end of December.

MTS can borrow it Negotiations on the sale of Taif-Telcom, the largest cellular operator in Tatarstan in the GSM-900/1800 standard under the Santel brand, are close to completion. The head of the Taif holding and the chairman of the board of directors of Taif-Telcom, Albert Shigabutdinov, said at the end of last week that Santel could be sold for the amount that would be received after four years of operation of the network.

“Spartak” found the strength to part with Sychev Last week, the scandal surrounding the relationship between Spartak and Dmitry Sychev ended. The young footballer moved to the French “Marseille”, having concluded... a contract, and the Russian club will soon lift his disqualification. Thus, the transfer market survived. There has been no precedent that would allow any player to leave the team before the expiration of his contract.

President Held another meeting with a number of federal ministers on Saturday. Present were Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov, head of the presidential administration Alexander Voloshin, Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov, heads of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of Internal Affairs Igor Ivanov and Boris Gryzlov, and FSB director Nikolai Patrushev. Issues of Russia's domestic and foreign policy were discussed.

On the eve of the New Year's peak of foreign travel, the chief state sanitary doctor of Russia, Gennady Onishchenko, issued a decree on the fight against all kinds of exotic infections that our compatriots bring on their way back home. The document entitled “On measures to prevent diseases of Russian citizens traveling to foreign countries” was published on December 4, 2002.