The leader of the German Social Democrats was the 51-year-old Prime Minister of the federal state of Brandenburg, Matthias Platzeck. Yesterday, 99.4% of participants at the SPD congress in Karlsruhe voted for the new party chairman. Platzeck replaced 64-year-old Franz Müntefering as party leader.

The Constitutional Court is considering the legality of abolishing direct gubernatorial elections The Constitutional Court yesterday began considering one of the largest cases in recent years, caused by an attempt to break the famous Putin vertical, the basis of the Kremlin’s regional power. The Constitutional Court will have to check whether the president and the State Duma violated the Constitution by canceling direct elections of governors at the end of last year.

Hockey. NHL. Regular season. "Pittsburgh" -- "Islanders" -- 2:3 (bulls.) -- Yashin "A" (1+0), "Calgary" -- "Minnesota" -- 3:2, "Tampa Bay" -- “Philadelphia” – 5:2 – Artyukhin “TB” (0+1), “Colorado” – “Edmonton” – 2:5. Alexey Yashin scored the 300th goal of his career in the North American League. It took the longest shootout of the season to determine the winner of the match between the Penguins and the Islanders.

Until recently, it seemed that the passions around the Golden Angel festival, which the Kinomark company intends to hold in St. Petersburg, had subsided, and the question of the place where the tents of temporary cinema halls should be erected had been resolved: the director of the Hermitage Mikhail Piotrovsky proposed holding an opening and closure, and build a film town in the courtyards of the General Staff.

The President was faced with “an extremely low culture of behavior on the roads” Opening yesterday a meeting of the Presidium of the State Council dedicated to transport problems, Vladimir Putin spoke with such pain about the dire consequences of road accidents, the recklessness of drivers and rudeness on the roads, as if he himself went to work every day not in an armored limousine, but in his favorite white “ Volga" GAZ-21 with license plate "R 001 BB 99".

Strengthening the government can lead to its weakening Tomorrow the government will meet for the first time in a new composition.

The Israeli Police Department for Combating National and International Crimes will recommend that the country's prosecutor's office bring charges against well-known businessman Vladimir Gusinsky for money laundering through the Tel Aviv branch of Bank Hapoalim. The Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported this yesterday. In March, Mr. Gusinsky, owner of the RTVi television channel and co-owner of the Israeli newspaper Maariv, was interrogated in the Hapoalim Bank case.

The Serbian government is in no hurry to “reveal its cards” The Serbian government yesterday unanimously adopted a draft resolution on Belgrade's position in negotiations to determine the final status of Kosovo. Negotiations between the Serbian authorities and representatives of the regional autonomy are due to begin in December under the auspices of the UN and with international mediation. In the coming days, the program document will be considered by the Assembly (Parliament) of Serbia.

The Public Chamber will be filled with singers and oligarchs Yesterday in Moscow, the first third of the Public Chamber, appointed by presidential decree, elected the second. 200 candidates, representatives of all-Russian public organizations, competed for 42 places. At the time of signing the number, voting was not completed.

New American aircraft will be made in Russia The American aircraft manufacturer Boeing presented yesterday its new design center in Moscow, specifically designed for the design of the Boeing 787 passenger aircraft. Moreover, this is the second such Boeing site in the Russian capital - since 1997, a design center has been operating here, carrying out work as part of other company projects.

A few numbers. 19 -- President Chirac waited nineteen days to address the citizens of France. 3 -- three months of a state of emergency was asked and received from the National Assembly by the French government, at the proposal of the Minister of the Interior, Nicolas Sarkozy. Everyone knows these numbers. Some are outraged by Chirac's slowness. Others believe that three months of emergency is clearly too much. But there are also other very interesting figures. For example: 28,000.

Russians do not link the future of the country with democracy Russians prefer strengthening state regulation of the economy and are even ready to give up some democratic freedoms in order to restore order.

Yuri Luzhkov appointed those responsible for the distortions of the General Plan of Moscow The master plan for the development of Moscow until 2020, which an entire institute is working on to draw up, did not help the capital’s officials ensure a balance between the social, transport, engineering and energy infrastructure of the fast-growing city.

Palestinians agree with Israelis to cross border US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice's mission to the Middle East has been a success. Yesterday, Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz officially announced that Israel and the Palestinian Authority had reached an agreement on the operation of border terminals in the Gaza Strip. Ms. Rice played a decisive role in this by disrupting her overseas tour schedule on Monday.

Chavez showed dirt on his neighbors on TV Mexico and Venezuela are on the verge of breaking diplomatic relations. On Monday, Caracas urgently recalled its ambassador to Mexico City. After this, the Mexican ambassador was recalled from Caracas. The reason for these movements was the ultimatum that Mexico put forward to Venezuela: to apologize no later than midnight on Monday for President Hugo Chavez's rudeness towards his Mexican counterpart Vicente Fox.