Moscow lawyers refused the Ministry of Justice and the Prosecutor General's Office Mikhail Khodorkovsky's defenders retained their legal status, which the Prosecutor General's Office and the Ministry of Justice tried to take away from them. Their colleagues stood up for the lawyers, and yesterday the council of the Moscow Bar Chamber unanimously refused to expel Anton Drel, Elena Levina and Denis Dyatlev from the ranks of lawyers.

A sharp increase in transport tax could put Georgy Boos at odds with ordinary Kaliningrad residents Former Deputy Speaker of the State Duma Georgy Boos, who took charge of the westernmost Russian region a month ago, has already made a lot of noise. And every time because of money. Most recently, he took away from regional ex-officials their pension increases and all other material bonuses. And now Mr. Boos has decided to at least double the transport tax.

UN Security Council accused of oil corruption The Volcker Special Commission yesterday released the fifth and final version of its report on abuses in the implementation of the UN Oil-for-Food program. True, the document published in early September was also called the final document.

Forecast for the coming days Following the cyclone, a cold anticyclone entered the northwest and center of Russia. In the next 24 hours, under its influence, the temperature, mainly at night, will drop sharply: in the northwestern regions in some places to -15°C, in the central regions - to -11°C. During the day, in the presence of an anticyclone, the air will warm up and the air temperature will rise to small but positive values.

The Chinese women's team will play in the men's world championship The distribution of champion titles continues in world chess. After identifying the world champion, Israel is ready to play the world team chess championship among men (November 1-11). Unlike the mass Chess Olympiads, held on a two-year cycle, this competition is held every four years and with the participation of only ten teams.

Amsterdam airport prisoners burned to death Yesterday's fire in a prison block at Amsterdam Schiphol Airport claimed the lives of 11 prisoners. People burned alive - the guards did not have time to open the cells. Another 15 people were hospitalized. The lives of some still hang in the balance. The fire broke out for an unknown reason in one of the cells around midnight. Fire crews were able to deal with it only after three hours.

Sylvie Guillem prevented a strike at La Scala It is almost impossible to see the world's first ballerina in classical performances - she is forty, and the girl in whom Nureyev once recognized that bird's rebellious spirit and cat's curiosity for the new that drove him through life, has long tried all the productions and is fed up with them.

The Terek football club and the President of the Chechen Republic Alu Alkhanov approached the Russian Football Union with a proposal to expand the Russian Premier League to 18 teams starting next year. Only in this way will the Chechen team, which retains only a theoretical chance of not being relegated from the elite division, fulfill its vow to remain in the Premier League. The idea is not new.

Colleagues do not believe he is guilty Vice-President of the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs Oleg Kiselev left the post of Chairman of the Board of Directors of the investment bank Renaissance Capital. Observers associate the resignation of the famous businessman with the criminal case brought against him in connection with fraud in the shares of the Mikhailovsky Mining and Processing Plant.

The SCO does not need Cold War stereotypes “The Shanghai Cooperation Organization will never become a military bloc,” SCO Executive Secretary Zhang Deguang said yesterday. He met with journalists to sum up the results of the meeting of the SCO Council of Heads of Government held in Moscow on Wednesday. Let us recall that this organization includes Russia, China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan.

Aeroflot announced yesterday that it will have approximately 5% more flights in its 2005/2006 winter schedule, which goes into effect on October 30, than in the corresponding period last year. From November 1, tickets on some domestic Russian routes of the airline will also rise in price by five: from this day on, the special fuel surcharge on flights between Moscow and St. Petersburg, Kaliningrad, Irkutsk, Yekaterinburg and Volga region airports will increase by $5.

Israel is ready to send troops to the Gaza Strip Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz instructed the leadership of the Israel Defense Forces to prepare for a ground military operation in the West Bank and the northern Gaza Strip. The military will have to strike at the radical Islamic Jihad group, which claimed responsibility for the terrorist attack in Hadera.

Crews of Russian ships taken as collateral It is possible that the fishermen of the trawler “Captain Gorbachev” and the refrigerator “Dmitry Pokramovich” detained on October 24 near the Norwegian island of Medvezhy now greatly regret that they did not follow the example of the trawler “Electron” and did not escape from the coast guard ships.

FIRST Monday, October 31 5 . 00 , 9 . 00 , 12 . 00 , 15 . 00 , 18 . 00 , 23 . 40 , 3 . 00 News 5 . 05 First program 6 . 00 Good morning 9 . 00 , 12 . 00 , 15 . 00 , 18 . 00 , 23 . 40 , 3 . 00 News 9 . 10 "TO SURVIVE." Hood. movie 11 . 20 Idols 12 . 20 Big lunch 13 . 30 "SPECIAL PURPOSES UNIT". Hood. movie 15 . 10 Lolita. Without complexes 16 . 00 “MISTRESS OF DESTINY.” Series 17 . 00 Federal Judge 18 . 10 Crooked Mirror 18 . 40 “ADJUTANTS OF LOVE”. TV series (S) 19 . 50 Wait for me 21 .

The market leader's license has been revoked after all The story of the deprivation of the license of the Capital Insurance Company (CIC), the leader in collecting premiums in 2004, has reached a new level. The company has already had its license suspended twice, and yesterday the Federal Insurance Supervision Service (FSSN) by its order revoked it completely.