The Duma almost unanimously limited the retail sale of beer The State Duma yesterday adopted in the second reading a bill to limit the retail sale and consumption of beer in public places. This is the second anti-beer law in recent months. The first was amendments to the law “On Advertising”, limiting beer advertising on television. Yesterday, the beer topic did not cause discussion among the deputies - they spent no more than five minutes on the adoption of the document.

The trial continues in Hamburg in the case of Moroccan electrical engineering student Mounir el-Motassadeq, accused of involvement in the tragic events of September 11, 2001 in New York and Washington. This week, the prosecution presented a new witness to the court, who stunned the court with his revelations. Roger Lutz, 42, owns a pub in Hamburg's seedy Sao Pauli district. The street is located near the port and is famous for its red-light establishments.

United Russia deputy criticized presidential reform There is dissent in the United Russia faction in the Duma. United Russia deputy Anatoly Ermolin yesterday sent an open letter to the faction leader, State Duma Speaker Boris Gryzlov and his deputy Oleg Morozov, in which he criticized the president’s initiatives to abolish direct gubernatorial elections and eliminate single-mandate constituencies in the Duma elections.

Unemployed NHL players are not afraid of injuries in Russia 33 Russian NHL players, almost half of our entire overseas legion, have not yet found work in the super league. Although, as many experts argued, a pilgrimage from the NHL should have awaited us back in September. This didn't happen. Why? One of the reasons is that many hockey players did not believe that the lockout would last long.

The reason for these notes was “The Book of Farewells” by Stanislav Rassadin (M., “Text”). I’m sure that “Memories of Friends and Not Only Them” is worthy of a separate conversation, but it’s not for me to lead it. And here's why.

Government At today's meeting, we will consider proposals from the Ministry of Industry and Energy to develop a number of bills that will stimulate the attraction of private business and investment in the housing and communal services sector. The Ministry of Industry and Energy proposes to develop a law on the financial recovery of enterprises and organizations in the housing and communal services sector.

The opposition couldn't stop Sharon The Israeli parliament made a decision that is destined to go down in history: MPs voted in favor of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's plan to evacuate Jewish settlements from the Gaza Strip and parts of the West Bank. The Knesset's will can be put on a par with the agreements signed in 1993 in Oslo and the agreement concluded in 1998 in Wye Plantation. True, this time the Palestinian side is not participating in the historical event.

It won’t be easy for Ukrainians to become “friends” in Russia President Putin’s promises to simplify the regime of entry and stay in Russia for Ukrainian citizens starting in the New Year, which he made on Tuesday in Kyiv, did not cause any reaction yesterday in Russian bureaucratic circles, which in theory will have to put these promises into practice.

The Duma distributed additional expenses of the 2004 budget Yesterday, the State Duma approved amendments to the federal budget for the current year in three readings at once. Thus, deputies approved changes to it due to high oil prices. Let us recall that the Russian budget for 2004 was calculated by the Ministry of Finance based on the average annual oil price of $22 per barrel. 380 deputies voted for the amendments, six people abstained, and no one spoke against.

The future of the domestic auto industry can be seen in the northern capital The annual automobile exhibition “Auto + Automechanics” started yesterday in St. Petersburg, which will last until October 31. Although this exhibition site is inferior in prestige to the MIMS and Motor Shows held in the capital at the end of summer, it is the main one in the North-West region - the second largest sales market after Moscow.

On January 1, 2006, the federal law on local self-government will come into force. The other day, the Taimyr Duma decided to give the Taimyr Autonomous Okrug the status of a municipal district within the Krasnoyarsk Territory from January 1, 2006. Governor of the Taimyr (Dolgano-Nenets) Autonomous Okrug Oleg BUDARGIN spoke in an interview with Vremya Novostei correspondent Dmitry ANDREEV about the benefits the unification will bring to the residents of the region.

The government ordered the integration of all hydroelectric power stations Prime Minister Mikhail Fradkov yesterday supported the idea of ​​RAO UES of Russia, the Ministry of Economic Development and the Ministry of Industry and Energy to create one wholesale hydro-generating company in the process of reforming the electric power industry, and not four, as was previously planned. Hydro-OGK will thus become the largest structure on the energy market.

The Federation Council keeps secret why the military has more and more money, but less and less weapons Yesterday's government hour in the Federation Council, perhaps, can be attributed to the most secret meetings ever held within the walls of the building on Bolshaya Dmitrovka. In any case, outwardly the event was arranged in such a way that not a grain of any meaningful information came out.

For several years now, Moscow has been unable to get the West to extradite Chechen terrorists. However, Madrid has been successfully resolving the issue of extraditing Basque terrorists from France for 20 years. The new Ambassador of Spain to Russia, Mr. Francisco Javier ELORZA CAVENGT, spoke to Vremya Novostei about the Spanish experience in the fight against terrorism. -- To successfully counter terrorism, the country needs to achieve unity in its attitude towards terrorism.

The head of Kaskola combined a non-linear position with a linear one The Kaskol group of companies announced yesterday a reshuffle in its top management. Group President Sergei Nedoroslev ceded this post to former First Vice President Viktor Grigoriev. And the former vice president for business development and international programs, Alexander Filatov, became the new first vice president of Kaskol. As Mr.