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.

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".

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.

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.

Education reform and the Kelly Affair threaten the British Prime Minister British Prime Minister Tony Blair is going through difficult times these days - something he hasn't experienced since Labor came to power in 1997. Today the results of a judicial commission's investigation into the death of David Kelly, a weapons expert who anonymously informed a BBC journalist about the cabinet's falsification of the "Iraq dossier," will be made public.

The Kyrgyz defense industry will be “connected” to the Russian defense industry Yesterday, during the visit to Moscow of the Kyrgyz delegation led by Prime Minister Nikolai Tanaev, the fate of four enterprises of the military-industrial complex of this country was decided - the Bishkek Machine-Building Plant, Ainur JSC, the Dastan transnational corporation and Zhanar JSC.

Human rights activists intend to challenge the AGS law in the courts Representatives of public organizations are going to fight the law “On Alternative Civil Service” that came into force on January 1 with the help of continuous and widespread litigation. This was stated yesterday at a press conference by the executive secretary of the Coalition of Public Organizations “For a Democratic ACS” Sergei Krivenko, who believes that in its current form the law infringes on the rights of young people.

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.

The mayor's office approved a new housing reconstruction program Before the Moscow authorities had time to complete the program of demolition of Khrushchev's five-story buildings, a new problem arrived - residential buildings of the so-called “unbearable” series began to fall into disrepair.