Afghanistan has its own parliament “Today we are making history” - with these words early yesterday morning, Afghan President Hamid Karzai cast his ballot for the parliamentary elections. Mr. Karzai's enthusiasm is understandable; the last time Afghans elected deputies was in 1969, under King Zahir Shah. Previously, it was planned to hold parliamentary elections in October last year simultaneously with the presidential ones.

Security tip: It's safer not to change The reform of the United Nations Secretariat will begin this Monday. UN Secretary General Kofi Annan promised this on Saturday, opening a discussion on this topic at the 60th session of the UN General Assembly. During the discussion, “ways to implement the decisions of the 2005 summit” are discussed. The world summit ended in New York on Friday. It was also devoted to issues of UN reform.

Iran threatens to leave OPEC At today's OPEC summit in Vienna, a scandal over oil production quotas may break out. The cartel's second-largest member in terms of production volumes, Iran, does not exclude the possibility that it will leave OPEC, since the organization is constantly increasing oil production, and this does not correspond to the national interests of the country.

Exhibition “Russia!” in New York At a press conference on the opening of the exhibition “Russia!” at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York. There was a small controversy between the chairman of the Federal Agency for Culture and Cinematography, Mikhail Shvydkiy, and the director of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, Thomas Krentz. In his speech, Shvydkoy called the content of the exhibition textbook and in this he noted its dignity not only for Americans, but also for Russians.

Pyotr Mamonov told a parable about the insane A new feature of Moscow’s concert life is an event called “Beautiful Evenings at Gogol’s,” a mixture of a concert and a creative meeting. On the stage of the Theater. Gogol, the artists communicate with the public, as in the old days: notes on branded postcards are sent to the stage, where they are read and responded to. Pyotr Nikolaevich Mamonov fits such meetings like a hand fits a glove.

Russians will not support a ban on international adoption The desire of the Prosecutor General's Office and some State Duma deputies to introduce a moratorium on the adoption of orphans from our country by foreigners does not coincide with the opinion of the majority of Russians. This was very clearly shown by a study conducted recently by the All-Russian Center for the Study of Public Opinion.

The Russian team repeated the winning scenario Our girls in Paris defended the most prestigious team trophy - the Federation Cup, won last year in Moscow. Once again, the fifth meeting, held in doubles, turned out to be decisive in the confrontation between Russia and France. Elena Dementieva and Dinara Safina beat Amelie Mauresmo and Marie Pierce - 6:4, 1:6, 6:3. The real heroine of the final was Dementieva, whose efforts earned all three points for the winners.

Despite the weekend and the pre-election mood (on Sunday, September 25, there are elections to the Sejm and Senate in Poland), the country widely celebrated the 66th anniversary of the invasion of Soviet troops on September 17, 1939 in its eastern territories. Every year Poles celebrate such dates on a larger scale. In our historiography, this day has long been considered the beginning of the liberation mission of the Red Army in Western Ukraine and Belarus.

Vladimir Putin discussed with the heads of American energy companies the prospects for their work in Russia Last Friday, Gazprom completed the selection of foreign partners for the implementation of the first phase of the Shtokman project. The American Chevron and ConocoPhilips, the Norwegian Statoil and Hydro, and the French Total made it to the finals of the “beauty contest,” as the top managers of the gas monopolist called it.

Separatists announced the death of security chief Maskhadov On Saturday night, the mouthpiece of the Chechen separatists, the Kavkaz Center website announced the death of the former head of personal security of Aslan Maskhadov, the famous field commander Akhmad Avdorkhanov. According to this message, the “commander of the Eastern Front of Ichkeria” died on September 12, “becoming a suicide bomber.” How and why he died, however, the separatists did not explain.

Lithuanians have questions not only for Russia, but also for NATO Yesterday in Lithuania, work began to remove the wreckage of a Russian fighter from the ground. A Su-27 aircraft of the 6th Army of the Russian Air Defense Forces that violated Lithuanian airspace on Thursday crashed to the ground 55 km from the second largest Lithuanian city of Kaunas. Despite the scandal, the first statements by the leaders and military officials of the Republic of Lithuania were quite neutral.

The Duma took care of children and the Far North The main topic of Friday's plenary meeting of the State Duma was children. After a long discussion, the chamber adopted in the first reading a bill increasing the monthly allowance for a child up to one and a half years old from 500 to 700 rubles.

The Kaliningrad region awaits special economic status The economy of the Kaliningrad region has been living in limbo for several years now - there is still no new law on a special economic zone. In the westernmost Russian region, separated from its native country by the territories of foreign states, they really hope that this law, so important for the region, will finally be adopted during the current session of the State Duma.

The police took foreign students to the ground The investigation into yet another murder of a foreign student has again quarreled the power structures of St. Petersburg. The leadership of the Central Internal Affairs Directorate almost immediately declared the crime solved, the prosecutor's office said that it knew nothing of the kind, and the student community, in turn, again accused city officials of being unwilling to acknowledge the existence of racism in the city.

Our renewed team successfully started at Euro 2005 The Russian women's team began their participation in the European Championship with a victory. At the Sports Palace in the Croatian city of Pula, the wards of Italian specialist Giovanni Caprara, within Group 2 of the preliminary stage, defeated the silver medalists of the previous championship, the Turkish women - 3:0 (25:23, 26:24, 25:20).