Storytellers of the Year are ready to be awarded Attentive (and inattentive) readers of Novy Mir have probably noticed: over the last two years, this magazine has become increasingly “cooler” and “advanced.” It seems that the editors have adopted an attitude towards the consistent destruction of the previous good image. The main thing is to stun the reader by breaking old conventions. Now, they say, we are not like that at all, but, quite the opposite, we are like that .

The owners of the collapsed pool found a lot of rust in it The management of the Chusovsky Metallurgical Plant (ChMZ) yesterday announced the results of its investigation into the causes of the accident in its Dolphin swimming pool, where 14 people died due to a roof collapse on December 4. According to experts hired by the company, the cause of the tragedy was corrosion of 50% of the supporting beam of the pool roof.

Ishmuratova won personal gold for the first time Svetlana Ishmuratova’s first career victory, won in the personal discipline, ended the first day of the third stage of the World Cup on the track near the Slovak town of Osrbli. In the 15 km individual race, the 33-year-old athlete from Chelyabinsk made only one penalty penalty on four shooting lines and was ahead of her Russian teammate Albina Akhatova, who finished second, by 62 seconds.

Tiny island state ahead of Russia and Ukraine on path to WTO Saudi Arabia and the small island nation of Tonga celebrated their accession to the World Trade Organization (WTO) yesterday. Formally, the ceremony looked very modest. At a special meeting dedicated to the acceding countries, WTO head Pascal Lamy announced this decision, and the prime ministers of the countries made their first ceremonial speech in their new capacity.

The number of Voronezh residents infected by blood transfusion from a donor with AIDS may increase Yesterday in Voronezh it turned out that another patient who received a blood transfusion from a sick donor may be infected with AIDS. Assistant Prosecutor of the Voronezh Region Galina Gorshkova told Vremya Novostei that in the framework of the criminal case initiated by the prosecutor’s office under Art.

Russia and Ukraine are squeezing each other in a gassy embrace Yesterday there were no loud sensations in the Russian-Ukrainian gas drama. Although the schedule of the actors was very busy.

New crisis in the European Union The main goal of the meeting in Brussels, which yesterday brought together the leaders of 25 EU countries and its member states, Bulgaria and Romania, was to find a way out of the impasse in which the agreement on the Union budget for 2007-2013 found itself. Europe has not seen such an acute conflict between its leaders for a long time. At the Brussels summit, two concepts for the further construction of the European Union collided.

A rock 'n' roll approach to jazz from The Bad Plus at Le Club New York acoustic trio The Bad Plus belong to a generation of young, ambitious virtuosos, omnivores in terms of genre. Such people rarely come to us, so three concerts of The Bad Plus at Le Club are an event for the cultural life of the capital.

Tbilisi and Sukhumi almost agreed not to fight Tbilisi and Sukhumi are close to signing the Agreement on International Guarantees of Non-Resumption of War, which has been in the works for four years now. The special representative of the President of Georgia at the Georgian-Abkhaz negotiations, Irakli Alasania, told reporters that Mikheil Saakashvili is ready “without preconditions at any time” to meet with the leader of Abkhazia Sergei Bagapsh.

Hamlet, Claudius and Polonius turned out to be peers on the stage of the Moscow Art Theater Long before the premiere, it became known that Hamlet would be played at the Art Theater by St. Petersburg actor Mikhail Trukhin, and the choice of director Yuri Butusov did not surprise anyone. The most delicious role in the world went to the thirty-four-year-old artist not only because of his abilities (which are undoubted), but also because of his acquaintances.

And he will hear about Karabakh Today, at the invitation of Vladimir Putin, following the President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko, the President of Armenia, another Russian ally in the CIS Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO), will arrive in Sochi. Robert Kocharyan is far from being such a frequent interlocutor of Putin as other leaders of the CSTO countries.

The Ministry of Internal Affairs is preparing penalty points for drivers The heads of the Russian traffic police, preparing another offensive against drivers who break the rules, yesterday secured the support of the White House. The government, without much discussion, generally approved the draft federal target program “Improving Road Safety” for 2006-2012, giving the Ministry of Internal Affairs two weeks to finalize the document.

Putin and Yushchenko turned out to be allies in Transnistria The solution to one of the most long-standing problems that turned out to be a legacy of the collapse of the USSR, the conflict in Transnistria, was marked yesterday by two serious advances.

Ramzan Kadyrov does not want Grozny to be named after his father The idea of ​​the newly elected parliament of Chechnya - to rename the capital of the republic from Grozny to the city of Akhmatkala in honor of the murdered President Akhmat-Khadzhi Kadyrov - has an influential opponent. Yesterday it was rejected by the actual leader of the republic, acting. Prime Minister Ramzan Kadyrov. “I don’t see any reason for Grozny to be renamed.

Sunnis did not have enough ballot boxes and ballots Iraq yesterday elected the National Assembly - a permanent parliament of 275 deputies with four-year powers. The Iraqi Central Election Commission noted “unprecedented voter turnout.” Data on the percentage of voter participation in the elections did not appear yesterday. Since early morning, long queues have lined up at polling stations across the country.