President Uribe is ready to exchange rebels for hostages The Colombian government has radically changed its attitude towards cooperation with left-wing radical groups. In a statement released on Wednesday, Bogota said it was willing to exchange fifty jailed rebels for a large group of hostages held by the FARC (Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia). In the near future, the authorities agree to release fifty partisans accused of anti-government activities.

Russia may get closer to the leaders this weekend On Friday, Saturday and Sunday at the Olympic Games in Athens, a huge number of awards will be awarded - 79. For comparison, from last Saturday to yesterday, winners in 86 disciplines were determined in the capital of Greece and at the ancient stadium in Olympia. Thus, by the beginning of next week, in total, more than half of all sets of medals will have acquired their owners - 165 out of 301.

Alexander Popov sailed past the semi-finals The most bitter disappointment of the Athens Games was the unsuccessful performance of swimmer Alexander Popov. Contrary to the rules, yesterday for the first time all news reports began not with the announcement of the gold medals won, but with a statement of the fact that the four-time Olympic champion did not even make it to the semifinals in his signature distance - 50 meters freestyle.

New legislative initiatives in the field of party building could harm United Russia During the summer political calm, the authorities unexpectedly decided to actively engage in party building. A new round of work to strengthen parties began in the spring, when the Chairman of the Russian Central Election Commission, Alexander Veshnyakov, announced that his department was preparing amendments to the electoral legislation aimed at abolishing single-mandate constituencies.

CLUBS Blues Doctors . Blues rock. August 20, “Oracle of the Divine Bottle” , 23.00. Irina Rodiles and the group “Cher-ta” . August 20, Le Club , 20.00. Garik Sukachev and “The Untouchables” . Day one. August 20, “B2” , 23.30. Fool's Garden (Germany). August 20, “Sixteen tons” , 22.00. Chattanooga Ska Orchestra is the official side project of the musicians of the Moscow group Cabernet Deneuve .

The Argentina national team has no equal in the Olympic football tournament. On the way to their first “gold” at the Olympics, the Argentines do not take anyone into account and are ready to defeat anyone who gets in their way. The Argentines made it through the group stage, winning all three matches and not conceding a single goal. Perhaps Saviola and company could have been stopped on their way to the awards by Portugal.

The Internet company's initial public offering has ended The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on Wednesday declared Google's stock registration valid. After this, the company announced the price at which its shares would be sold to investors as part of the initial offering. This price turned out to be lower than originally expected. Yesterday, exchange trading in shares of the search engine began on NASDAQ. Going into the IPO, Google hoped to value itself at approximately $36 billion.

Yekaterinburg election commissions are arguing which of them is real The Leninsky District Court of Yekaterinburg began considering a series of claims related to the city's municipal election commission. Last Wednesday, a decision was made on the first lawsuit filed by the election commission of the Sverdlovsk region against the Yekaterinburg City Duma, which decided to form a new city election commission.

August in Moscow is marked by the horse The horse flu epidemic and the holiday season did not interfere with the work of the next, VI All-Russian Horse Exhibition “Equiros-2004” in Sokolniki. Tens of thousands of people took advantage of the opportunity to see up close, touch, stroke, try on, buy, try, ride, as in previous years. "Equiros" is the largest Russian exhibition of horses and everything connected with them.

The monopolist is suspected of restricting competition The Federal Antimonopoly Service nevertheless decided to initiate a case against Gazprom and its 100 percent subsidiaries - the processing company Surgutgazprom and the marketing company Mezhregiongaz, suspecting them of creating obstacles for independent gas producers on the way to the pipeline.

Polish swimmer will sell her medal Otylia Jedrzyczak, who won gold in the 200m butterfly, announced that she plans to sell her Olympic medal upon arrival in Poland. “After returning home, I'm going to put my medal up for auction,” said the 20-year-old Polish Olympic champion. - I will donate all the money raised to children with leukemia.

The city authorities tried to openly hold an auction to select investors for the “New Moscow Ring” The first open auction to select investors for the design and construction of high-rise buildings under the New Moscow Ring program took place yesterday in Moscow. However, there was no real openness: the list of participants was deliberately announced so quietly (almost in a whisper) that no one heard it, and they refused to repeat it.

Our shooters again took silver and bronze Yesterday, Alexander Blinov and Dmitry Lykin won silver and bronze, respectively, in air rifle shooting at a moving target from a distance of 10 m. The Russians repeated the result shown by their teammates Mikhail Nestruev and Vladimir Isakov on the first day of the competition, when the shooters of the national The two of the national team climbed to the podium, taking second and third places in firing with an air pistol.

Muqtada al-Sadr receives final ultimatum Imam Muqtada al-Sadr, who is fighting against the Americans in southern Iraq, has no intention of capitulating, despite reports of his conciliatory attitude. That night, in the center of the holy Shiite city of Najaf, in the mausoleum of Imam Ali (the prophet's cousin and son-in-law), the final battle of a group of militants, among whom the imam could be, was to unfold with US Marines and Iraqi National Guardsmen surrounding them.

Rising prices for petroleum products provoke inflation The government may not fulfill its plans, according to which inflation this year should be no more than 10%. Yesterday, after a government meeting, Minister of Economic Development German Gref said: “Inflation in August is caused by the high dynamics of rising prices for petroleum products. It was almost entirely thanks to oil product prices that we did not experience deflation in August (as planned - Ed. ).