Chirac supported Hu on Taiwan referendum and arms embargo The official visit to France of Chinese leader Hu Jintao brought major political dividends to the PRC. The declaration of “global strategic partnership” signed yesterday by Jacques Chirac and Hu Jintao not only confirmed Paris’s recognition of the “one China” policy, but also criticized the plans of the Taiwanese authorities to hold a referendum on relations between the island and the mainland in March.

Housing office workers will have to be responsible for ice and icicles Without waiting for an adequate response from the capital's authorities to the inaction of street cleaners and road services, due to which movement along many streets, sidewalks and courtyards in Moscow turned into an extreme sport, the city prosecutor's office undertook to restore order.

TNK-BP will merge all its subsidiaries TNK-BP once again promised to take care of the minority shareholders of the company’s subsidiaries. To achieve this, as the executive director of the Russian-British concern German Khan said yesterday, all four companies owned by TNK-BP will be merged.

Deputies of the City Duma propose to the mayor to reform his government body Having analyzed the results of the parliamentary elections, non-party deputies of the Moscow City Duma made a desperate attempt to preserve their mandates, and at the same time save democratic parliamentarism, at least in the individual capital of our Motherland. Yesterday, deputy Mikhail Moskvin-Tarkhanov appealed to the mayor of Moscow to reform the city representative body.

Government It is intended to tighten control over nine companies with state shares in capital. Techsnabexport JSC, Russian Railways, Sukhoi Aviation Holding Company, Almaz-Antey Air Defense Concern, Tactical Missile Weapons Corporation, Russian Electronics JSC, Roskhimzashchita Corporation will be subject to more serious control by the state ", "Rosgazification", "Channel One".

Moscow authorities have postponed the reconstruction of Pushkin Square “indefinitely” The next reconstruction project of Pushkinskaya Square has been shelved. As a source in the management of the capital's construction complex told the Vremya Novostey newspaper, the implementation of the plan approved in December to build a tunnel in the shape of “pants” under the square has been postponed for an “indefinite period.” However, most likely this plan will not be implemented at all.

A serious clash occurred in the conflict zone Four Georgian policemen died on Tuesday night in the 12-kilometer security zone that divided Georgians and Abkhazians after the armed conflict of 1992-1993. As a result of the clash, which stopped after the appearance of a patrol of Russian peacekeepers in an armored personnel carrier, two attackers were killed.

Andrey Lavrov angers Swedish forwards again The Russian men's team was pleasantly surprised at the preliminary stage of the final tournament of the European Handball Championship in Slovenia. The older team, which also has injured players, won all three matches in its group, and in the last meeting it defeated its principal rivals, the Swedes, 30:27. The Russians began the second stage late yesterday evening Moscow time with a match with the Danes.

The innovation will not affect the interests of Russians Yesterday in Ukraine, the law on replacing registration with registration, adopted in 2003, officially came into force. From now on, citizens of Ukraine and foreigners who are legally in the country are guaranteed freedom of movement and free choice of place of residence. The institution of registration back in November 2001 was recognized by the constitutional court as contrary to the basic law of the country.

The best exhibit from the section of the second half of the 20th century appeared in the Tretyakov Gallery Today in the State Tretyakov Gallery on Krymsky Val there is an event of historical proportions. For the first time, residents of the Russian capital can freely come to the museum and see a full-fledged installation by the famous Ilya Kabakov.

By the will of the Central Bank, Russian auditors risk losing a significant part of their business related to the audit of commercial banks. Yesterday, seven leading trade unions of auditors publicly accused the Central Bank of violating the law and excluding domestic companies from the banking audit market when transferring banks to international financial reporting standards (IAS).

PriceWaterhouseCoopers discovered overstatement of profits by the would-be milkman New unpleasant details have emerged in the case of the notorious Italian food manufacturer Parmalat.

Tour of the Japanese theater "Chambre West" in the "New Opera" A carefully painted backdrop: green distance, a church on the mountain. On the left are the columns of the manor house, on the right is a white bench. A table covered with a white tablecloth is brought out into the courtyard, on it is a samovar and two jars of jam. Well edited Tchaikovsky.

On the eve of the elections, Washington pretended to be a "dove" Yesterday at the Vatican, the head of the Catholic Church, John Paul II, received US Vice President Dick Cheney for 15 minutes. The main "hawk" of the American administration and the ideologist of the Iraq war, Dick Cheney, presented the Pope with a crystal dove. The symbolic significance of the gift is obvious - ten months after the start of the war in Iraq, Washington is trying to build bridges with the anti-war “old” Europe.

Altai shaman challenged Zhirinovsky to a knife duel The famous Altai shaman, 68-year-old Zaisan Tubalarov (spiritual leader of the Tubalar people) Anton Yudanov is going to send an open letter to LDPR Chairman Vladimir Zhirinovsky challenging him to a duel. Moreover, the duel should take place, according to old Altai traditions, with knives. Anton Yudanov is a legendary figure in Gorny Altai.