Hans Christian Andersen lived seventy years and wrote fifty volumes. Novels, poems, plays, and essays earned him European fame. They are all forgotten. And Andersen composed a lot of fairy tales, but only some of them are beautiful. A century has passed, and the collected works have turned into a thin book for children. But these masterpieces of preschool literature are not all that remains of Andersen. He created his own genre, or rather, the image of the genre.

Malaria outbreaks feared in Sochi At the largest resort in Russia, officially declared as a contender for the title of capital of the 2014 Winter Olympic Games, Rospotrebnadzor specialists are sounding the alarm: at any moment a malaria outbreak may appear in the city.

Moscow City Duma deputies decided to play slot machines with voters Deputies of the Moscow City Duma from United Russia still managed to pass before the elections and write into their election campaign assets their widely advertised bill on the placement of slot machines in the capital.

"Justified Cruelty" is released David Cronenberg personally asked film reviewers not to give viewers the key to his new film. He just didn’t warn him what exactly it was. After all, a simple “spoiler,” as the disclosure of the main intrigue is called in Hollywood, would be the mention of any plot conflicts, because the entire structure of the picture supports the author’s idea.

In the “electronic” passport, a minimum of information about the owner will be encoded for now The federal government has finally determined the parameters of a Russian’s new international passport. Prime Minister Mikhail Fradkov signed a decree yesterday containing a comprehensive description of the appearance and contents of the document and, in fact, for now froze talk about the transition to biometric passports.

EurAsEC has acquired a financial and economic council Yesterday, the Eurasian Economic Community (EurAsEC) had a new body - the Council on Financial and Economic Policy. Recently, in various interstate associations with the participation of Russia, a real fashion has arisen for the creation of various kinds of business and economic committees. Not more than a month ago, the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) acquired its own business council.

Russia is developing oil and gas cooperation with countries that until recently were not considered its traditional partners in this area. Prime Minister of the Kingdom of Morocco Dries JETTOU told Vremya Novostey columnist Elena SUPONINA about this in Rabat. - Mr. Prime Minister, the region is currently discussing the idea of ​​​​creating a gas pipeline through which gas could flow to Europe from Algeria through the territory of Morocco. How is this idea perceived in Rabat?

Tyumen legislators replaced the head of the State Duma apparatus On Tuesday, the governor of the Tyumen region was officially replaced - at a plenary meeting of the regional Duma, deputies considered the issue of terminating the powers of the head of the region, Sergei Sobyanin. The person responsible for the vote was not in Tyumen that day: Mr. Sobyanin said goodbye to the region last Thursday.

The lack of a clear economic policy has become a characteristic feature of the authorities' actions in recent years. This is noted by both foreign and Russian observers, and even the officials themselves admit it. After several years of reforms, it turned out that in a number of important areas the government does not have an understanding of the strategy for further development. The most striking example is tax reform and public mutually exclusive statements by officials about the VAT rate.

Policemen checked the new office of the National Bolsheviks Another scandal broke out yesterday around the recently abolished National Bolshevik Party (NBP). On Wednesday afternoon, officers from the Department for Combating Organized Crime (UBOP) of the Moscow City Internal Affairs Directorate and the Ministry of Emergency Situations arrived at the new headquarters of the National Bolsheviks, located in rented premises on Kashirskoe Highway, and searched the premises.

President Bush allowed NASA to buy a return ticket for an astronaut George W. Bush put an end to the debate about whether the US National Aeronautics Agency can pay for astronaut flights on Soyuz spacecraft, as well as purchase the necessary know-how from Russian space industry enterprises. On Tuesday evening, the US President signed amendments to the so-called act on the non-proliferation of missile and nuclear technologies to Iran, adopted by Congress back in 2000.

Tax amnesty in Russia will have to be postponed It seems that no one believes in the imminent completion of tax reform. The Ministry of Finance also does not advise believing in this; through the mouth of its officials, they assure that although large-scale amendments to the legislation have been carried out, the Tax Code can be improved almost endlessly. The concept of a tax amnesty has not yet been agreed upon, and a reduction in value added tax today is possible, but strategically incorrect.

United Russia is going to make dreams of a party government come true On Saturday, the United Russia party is due to discuss at its sixth congress in Krasnoyarsk the proposal of the first deputy speaker of the State Duma, Oleg Morozov, to grant the party that wins the elections the right to propose a candidate for prime minister to the president. United Russia decided in this way to realize their long-standing dream of a parliamentary government.

Today in Vienna, the Board of Governors of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) will once again discuss the “Iranian nuclear dossier”. The 35 member countries will decide whether to submit the “dossier” to the UN Security Council with the prospect of imposing sanctions against Iran. This possibility was provided for in a resolution adopted by the IAEA Board of Governors two months ago. “It is unlikely that such a decision will be made.

Forecast for the coming days The anticyclone pleased residents of the northwestern and central regions of European Russia with predominantly dry and warm weather. The average daily temperature in the center of Russia was one degree higher than normal. Only at night, when it cleared, did the air temperature drop to slightly negative values. In the next 24 hours, the anticyclone will remain in the center of Russia. Due to the high pressure, no significant precipitation is expected.