A count of 86% of the votes showed that in last Sunday's elections the right-wing opposition bloc "New Industrialists" overcame the 7% barrier, gaining 7.42% of the vote. The ruling party "National Movement - Democrats" is in the lead by a large margin - 65.91%. The party of the head of Adjara, Aslan Abashidze, “Union of Democratic Revival” so far has 6.96% of the votes.

Large-scale terrorist attack foiled in the Philippines Yesterday, Philippine President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo announced on national television to stunned citizens that the country's security forces had foiled a terrorist attack "comparable in scale to the March 11 Madrid bombings." According to the president, intelligence services discovered a cache of 36 kg of TNT, which terrorists planned to use for explosions in shopping centers and railway stations in the Philippine capital of Manila.

The long-standing dream of ex-Minister of Energy Igor Yusufov to transfer to his department the functions of a government commission distributing quotas for oil exports has finally come true. Nevertheless, Viktor Khristenko, the former deputy prime minister and head of the commission, and now the head of the Ministry of Industry and Energy, will continue to deal with export issues.

The mayor of Moscow began preparing his subordinates for the next winter At yesterday's meeting of the capital's government, Yuri Luzhkov once again proved that he knows how to set mobilizing tasks for his subordinates. Having promised workers of the DEZ next year criminal liability for every icicle that falls from the roof, the mayor forbade them from going onto the roofs of houses with shovels and crowbars in order to avoid damage to the roof and the appearance of leaks.

Youth art of Germany in Moscow The number of German exhibitions opening in Moscow is approaching a threshold that can be considered dangerous for the ardent art lover and the gloomy German genius. Residents of the capital can share the joy and sadness (being in time everywhere is a problem) that the residents of Germany (especially Frankfurt) experienced last year, when a similar stream of Russian art fell upon them.

Aluminum corporations are fighting for the board of directors of Metallurg SUAL, as the owner of 80% of the shares of St. Petersburg OJSC Metallurg, yesterday actually blocked the possibility of electing RUSAL representatives to the board of directors of the enterprise - SUAL representatives simply did not appear at the extraordinary meeting of shareholders organized for this purpose.

The court sentenced the killers of Sergei Yushenkov The Moscow City Court yesterday put the finishing touches on the case of the execution of State Duma deputy, chairman of the Liberal Russia party Sergei Yushenkov. The organizer of this crime, co-chairman of another “Liberal Russia” (created by Boris Berezovsky) Mikhail Kodanev and the direct perpetrator of the murder Alexander Kulachinsky were sentenced to long terms, although they received a lesser punishment than the prosecutor asked for.

In Primorye, the dead were treated with psychotropic drugs Five criminal cases were initiated by the Primorye department of the Federal Service for Control of Narcotic Drugs (FSN) on the facts of violations in local healthcare institutions. The main defendants in two of them are the Vladivostok ambulance station and the 1st regional clinical hospital. Serious violations were identified during the storage and disposal of psychotropic drugs.

Bush covered the “prisoners of the empire” with a NATO shield Yesterday in Washington, the ranks of the North Atlantic Alliance expanded from 19 to 26 member countries. The formal part of the procedure took place at the State Department, where the prime ministers of Romania, Bulgaria, Slovakia, Slovenia, Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia deposited the instruments of ratification on accession to the Alliance.

The Russian Orthodox Church will communicate with the EU through its representative office in Strasbourg The recent establishment of a representative office of the Russian Orthodox Church in Strasbourg at the Council of Europe should not be viewed as a political step. The Department for External Church Relations of the Moscow Patriarchate (DECR) tried to convince the Vremya Novostei newspaper correspondent of this.

Murmansk legislators ask the Constitutional Court to ban the sale of land to foreigners The Constitutional Court resumed yesterday its consideration of a request from the Murmansk Regional Duma, which considers the norms allowing the sale of land plots to foreigners unconstitutional. The trial in the case has been going on for more than a year, apparently because the motivation for this requirement is quite vague.

Two Russians reached the quarterfinals of the prestigious tournament At the first-category BTA women's tennis tournament with a prize fund of $3.06 million in Miami, two Russians reached the quarterfinals. Today Nadezhda Petrova will meet with Frenchwoman Nathalie Dechy, and Elena Dementieva will have a difficult duel with the second racket of the competition, American Venus Williams. Petrova crushed Australian Alicia Molik on Tuesday night Moscow time - 6:2, 6:1.

FGD and Deutsche Bank issued depository receipts for its shares Sberbank shares are entering world markets, despite the cool attitude towards this on the part of management. As announced yesterday, the United Financial Group (UFG) has finally implemented for its clients the long-announced program to issue global depositary receipts (GDRs) for Sberbank shares. Deutsche Bank, which recently became a major shareholder in the FGD, helped her in this. Sberbank did not participate in the program.

Gazprom plans to reduce financial borrowings in 2005 by a total of 120 billion rubles. and 90 billion rubles. in 2006 compared to 150 billion in 2004. The Gazprom board yesterday reviewed and approved the scenario conditions for the development of a draft financial plan, draft balances of payments, the main indicators of the investment program forecast, and the company's cost optimization program for 2005-2006.

The government understands the terms The ideology of a surplus budget seems to be finally crumbling. The budget will henceforth be deficit-free or, as they also say, “balanced”, when expenses equal income. At one time, Mikhail Kasyanov began to object to a surplus budget, because he did not understand why plan to additionally withdraw money from the economy in excess of the planned needs of the state, but now Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Zhukov is against this. However, Mr.