The autumn session of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) was held in Strasbourg, at which deputies elected the new Secretary General of the Council of Europe (CoE), Spaniard Mateo Sorinas Balfego.

Rada deputies understood Berezovsky differently So did Boris Berezovsky give money for the election of President Viktor Yushchenko? At the end of last week, representatives of the Ukrainian parliamentary commission, which is investigating information about illegal financing of the presidential campaign in 2004, met with the oligarch in London. Following the meeting, the deputies made contradictory statements.

Pirate chasers share their experiences On October 3, Moscow hosted the annual meeting of participants in the non-profit partnership of software suppliers (NP SPP), whose members include both Western companies that have long been present on the Russian market and domestic firms engaged in the production and distribution of software products. Computer piracy remains one of the main problems of software manufacturers in Russia, and the main goal of the partnership participants is to combat it.

If you noticed, no one is ever extradited to Russia now. Moreover, the Russian state loses any personal case in any court outside Russia - be it the story of the oligarchs Gusinsky and Berezovsky, the Ichkerian emissary Akhmed Zakayev, or unknown citizens. This is a kind of punishment for the government’s use of justice as an applied political tool.

"The Magic Flute" by Mozart at the Bolshoi Theater The English trio - Graham Vick (director), Paul Brown (artist) and Stuart Bedford (conductor), at the invitation of the Bolshoi Theater, made it so that Moscow finally had its own "Magic Flute" - perhaps the most fascinating, charming, mysterious and Mozart's cult opera. It hasn't been staged at the Bolshoi for a hundred years.

The history of the prize for the novel of the year has been enriched with the most ridiculous shortlist Talking about the long list of candidates for the Booker - Open Russia Prize (see Vremya Novostei, June 28) , I suggested that the spectacularly meaningless beginning of the current novel competition will be remembered more than its subsequent stages. I was wrong - there is no limit to perfection!

A new plant for the production of telecommunications equipment - JSC Elcoteq, a subsidiary of the Finnish concern Elcoteq SE - was put into operation in St. Petersburg last Friday. The concern intends to invest 100 million euros in the creation of a new production facility with 2 thousand jobs, while 25 million has already been spent on the acquisition of land (14.7 thousand sq. m) and the necessary equipment, construction of buildings and utilities.

The grandees of the Dark Continent were left out of the World Cup While the strongest teams of the Old World were just preparing to take to the field in the qualifying matches for the 2006 World Cup, sensational news began to arrive from the Dark Continent one after another. The revolution in African football, as recent events here have marked, has led to the fact that the upcoming World Cup in Germany will be held without recognized leaders of the continent.

In the second half of the match against Luxembourg, Roman Pavlyuchenko entered the field for the Russian national team and managed to score a goal, which became the most beautiful in this match. The forward of Spartak Moscow, after Vasily Berezutsky's pass into the opponent's penalty area, handled the ball with his chest, being surrounded by defenders of the Luxembourg national team, and in the fall delivered a devastating blow.

The peace prize will be divided in half by the agency and its director The International Peace Prize was awarded to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and its Director General, Egyptian Muhammad ElBaradei. The decision was a recognition that in recent years the agency has played an important role not only in technical issues related to nuclear energy, but also in world politics. The IAEA has existed since 1957 and includes 139 countries.

Abkhaz authorities do not want to recognize Georgian textbooks On October 6 and 7, a working group on the return of refugees who fled Abkhazia during the armed confrontation between this republic and Georgia in 1992-1993 met in Sochi. The Georgian side was represented at the meeting by State Minister for Conflict Resolution Georgiy Khaindrava, the Abkhazian side by Foreign Minister Sergei Shamba, and the Russian side by Ambassador-at-Large of the Russian Foreign Ministry Mikhail Bocharnikov.

On October 24, the Security Council will consider a report on Kosovo UN Secretary General Kofi Annan recommended that the UN Security Council authorize the start of international negotiations on the final status of Kosmet - this is the official name of the Serbian autonomous region of Kosovo and Metohija. By the way, the replacement of the Serbian name Kosmet with the Albanian name Kosovo hides the acuteness of the struggle for the future of this territory.

McLaren and Renault are not yet over their rivalry The penultimate stage of the Formula 1 season ended with a brilliant victory for Kimi Raikkonen from the McLaren team. This is the Finnish driver's seventh triumph this year, and he is now ahead of newly crowned world champion Fernando Alonso in terms of the number of races won - the Spaniard has finished first only six times.

The new owners of REN TV accepted the resignation of the channel’s founders The founders of the REN TV channel seem to have finally given up hope of regaining control over their brainchild. At the end of last week, Irena and Dmitry Lesnevsky announced their intention to leave their posts on October 15.

Another militant base was stormed in Makhachkala A fierce battle with the use of heavy armored vehicles and grenade launchers broke out yesterday morning in the very center of Makhachkala. Having discovered a group of saboteurs in a private residential building, security officers were immediately ambushed and were forced to wage a siege of the captured building for almost four hours.