The head of the Stupino Metallurgical Plant has been charged with murder The head of the Stupino Metallurgical Company (SMK), Alexander Shoror, as Vremya Novostei learned, was charged last week with organizing the murder. According to investigators, he “ordered” the director of the Sochi boarding house “Podmoskovye”, owned by the Stupino plant. Vladimir Efvryushkin was brutally murdered in 2002, beaten to death with baseball bats.

For the first time, a Russian heavyweight won the prestigious title Last Saturday in Berlin, Russian giant Nikolai Valuev, winning on points, took the WBA world heavyweight title from American John Ruiz.

The competitiveness of the economy is determined by the level of IT development The Russian League of Independent Experts in the Field of IT (LINEX) published the results of an interesting statistical study carried out on the example of 37 countries, including Russia. It turned out that the competitiveness of national economies depends on the level of maturity of IT services markets.

In the space of the former USSR, the new Iraqi authorities intend to establish economic ties not only with Russia, but also with Ukraine, the fashion for which is dictated by the European Union and the United States. The other day, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of Iraq Hamid AL-BAYATI visited Kyiv and answered questions from Vremya Novostey. - We are not against Russian or Ukrainian companies receiving oil contracts in Iraq.

Amid unprecedented street fighting, WTO summit ends in historic success Delegates gathered at the VI Ministerial Conference of the World Trade Organization (WTO) in Hong Kong managed to accomplish the impossible. It turns out that there are still miracles in the world. On the last day of work, at the cost of superhuman efforts (all press conferences and even the lunch break were cancelled), we managed to agree on the final declaration.

VOLLEYBALL. December 20--22. Champions League. Men. Women. 7th round. December 20-21. Top Teams Cup. Men. Women. Main stage. 6th round. December 24. "All-Star Game" of the Russian men's championship. December 24-25. Super League. Women. 8th round. In the men's Champions League, the capital's Dynamo are free from playing; the current winner of the gold medals of the national championship, Belgorod Lokomotiv-Belogorye, will meet in Sofia with the Bulgarian Levski on Wednesday.

Media Union noted the work of foreign journalists about Russia Media-Union named those with the “best view” of Russia from the outside, noting two works by foreign journalists about the tragic events in Beslan. The most objective approach to this topic and high professionalism, according to the jury of the new Golden Verb competition, were demonstrated by the American company CBS and the Norwegian TV2 and their employees Jonathan Sanders and Oystein Bogen.

Russia took the ROSNO Cup thanks to the goals of the top three The Russian national team won the third stage of the Eurotour - the traditional Moscow December tournament ROSNO Cup, previously known as the Izvestia Prize and the Baltic Cup. The return to the ice of the Luzhniki Sports Palace after five years turned out to be successful.

The Irkutsk region has agreed to gasify the region bypassing TNK-BP While last Friday, First Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev and the head of Gazprom Alexey Miller presented a national social project in Novy Urengoy for accelerated gasification of the country, in Irkutsk representatives of the concern signed an agreement with the local administration on the creation of gas distribution infrastructure in the region, serving 2 million residents of the region.

The European Commission wants to speed up the “divorce” of ALROSA and De Beers It seems that a new stage is beginning in the relations between the two largest diamond mining companies in the world - South African De Beers and Russian ALROSA. According to Interfax, the European Commission intends to demand that the companies terminate their trade agreement on the supply of Russian rough diamonds to De Beers as early as 2009.

Basketball. NBA. Regular season. "Clippers" - "Houston" - 89:81, "Charlotte" - "Detroit" - 78:103, "New York" - "Indiana" - 96:102, "Cleveland" - " Miami" -- 115:107, "Memphis" -- "Phoenix" -- 91:87, "Chicago" -- "Boston" -- 118:86, "Milwaukee" -- "Utah" -- 80:88 - - Kirilenko "Yu" (5 points + 6 rebounds + 3 assists + 1 blocked shot), "San Antonio" - "Sacramento" - 90:89.

Mikhail Kasyanov was not allowed to lead the Democratic Party Taking away the brand of a political party in these days of raging political technologies is not a difficult thing. The main thing is the availability of administrative resources and money. A clear example of how this is done is the story that happened to the Democratic Party of Russia (DPR) last Saturday.

New performance by John Neumeier "Songs of the Night", the Hamburg Ballet's just premiered, consists of two parts - "Nocturnes" and "Night Journey". In fact, on the playbill is Two Ballets by John Neumeier; each movement has different music (Chopin's nocturnes and Mahler's Seventh Symphony, respectively), different artists are involved in them, and in general they differ exactly as much as Chopin can differ from Mahler.

Market growth reveals talent shortage This year started promisingly for the domestic information technology and communications industry - with the decision taken by the country's president in support of it. And it ends as usual. The industry is developing at a pace significantly faster than the rest of the economy, but a breakthrough that can actually ensure the diversification of Russian exports is still too far away.

Sao Paulo won the tournament of the strongest clubs in the world Brazilian Sao Paulo won the title of the best club on the planet. The title is quite conditional. Despite the sonorous name of the tournament “Club World Championship”, the participation of representatives from six parts of the world and the prize fund of 15 million dollars, it still came down to a confrontation between the best clubs in Europe and South America.