This week the Russian flag will be raised again in Turin. On March 10, the Paralympic Games begin, which are traditionally held after the “big” Olympics. The President of the Russian Paralympic Committee, Commissioner for Human Rights in the Russian Federation Vladimir LUKIN spoke about the preparation of our team for these competitions in an interview with Vremya Novostey correspondent Andrei VDOVINA.

Three skiers won the cup start The ordinary stage of the World Cup, which took place last weekend in the Norwegian town of Kvitfjell, will forever go down in the history of not only alpine skiing, but also the entire world sport. The results of the women's super-G competition turned out to be unique: three participants showed the same time, down to hundredths of a second, and all of them were recognized as winners.

The pre-election situation in Belarus remains tense. On Friday it became known that a criminal case had been opened against presidential candidate Alexander Kazulin on suspicion of hooliganism. Let us recall that on February 17, the politician intended to hold a press conference at the national press center. He managed to get there only after a small scuffle with the special forces officers who surrounded the building.

Last year's worst films get their due The Razzie Awards, celebrating “the most inglorious moments of the cinematic year” (its name comes from the English word raspberry, “raspberry”, which is a rough analogue of our “spreading cranberries”), appeared in the Hollywood area a quarter of a century ago - in 1981 in In Los Angeles, at the instigation of John Wilson, the worst films of the year were honored for the first time.

Ukraine closed borders to Transnistria A conflict is brewing between Ukraine and Transnistria over new customs rules. From March 3, Transnistrian goods are allowed into the territory of Ukraine only with customs clearance from Moldova. “Ukraine has moved away from the basic principles of a mediator and guarantor state of the negotiation process, adopting the position of one of the conflicting parties,” the Foreign Ministry of the unrecognized Transnistrian Republic said in a statement.

Dynamo lost the first match of the season The Russian football season officially started with the 1/8 finals of the National Cup. Some clubs treated these meetings as another stage of preparation for the championship starting in two weeks. But almost everyone who laid claim to the trophy achieved quite good results. With the exception of Dynamo Moscow.

Ekaterinburg orphanages are taught how to repeat the successes of famous orphans A guide to surviving without government support will be given to Ekaterinburg orphans as a graduation gift. Recently, in the Middle Urals, work was completed on the preparation of the book “I’ll Do It Myself,” the materials for which were prepared by the orphanage residents themselves.

H2O will become the main strategic resource of this century In an era distant from us, five thousand years BC, when the Sumerian civilization was taking shape in the lower reaches of the Euphrates, life there depended primarily on the availability of water. The river was divided into channels, which often changed their course, and where water used to flow, swamps or lifeless clay soils appeared. Therefore, control over water sources, canals and dams was vital for the Sumerians.

The European territory of Russia will again be at the mercy of a vast cyclone. In the central region on Monday there will still be no significant precipitation at a temperature of -2...-7°C. But on Tuesday the influence of the cyclone will already be felt: it will snow at times, but the temperature background will remain the same. In the northwestern region there will be light snow only in places; during the day the thermometers will show -5...-10°C.

Hockey. NHL. Regular season.

Petrova prevented Mauresmo from topping the world rankings At the BTA second category competition with a prize fund of $600 thousand in the capital of Qatar, Doha, Nadezhda Petrova did not allow the Frenchwoman Amelie Mauresmo to win the fourth title of the season and return to first place in the world classification. The final match ended with a score of 6:3, 7:5 in favor of the Russian.

The Canadian taiga urgently needs an ice age When scientists talk about how the notorious global warming will dramatically change the ecology of the planet, they are usually talking about the difficulties that future generations will face. For example, that the melting of ice will raise the level of the World Ocean and sea waters will flood the coastal lowlands, or that currently quite prosperous territories will turn into arid semi-deserts.

Air carriers have their first aircraft The organizers of the DEXTER air taxi project received the first plane last Friday. It is planned to deploy this new service for Russia using six-seat light M-101T aircraft, which are produced by the Nizhny Novgorod Sokol aircraft plant. The plant handed over such a machine to the Avia Management Group (AMG) company, the operator of the DEXTER project, at the Moscow Vnukovo airport.

According to Russian laws, you can head two municipalities at the same time The Law on General Principles of Organization of Local Self-Government officially came into force on January 1, 2006. Since the regions now largely determine the procedure for implementing the law on their territory, some began to prepare for a new “scourge” in advance. For example, in the Moscow region, the regional authorities decided not to rush into creating a new, non-state level of government.

Chinese authorities promised to help peasants The annual session of the National People's Congress (NPC) began in Beijing yesterday. Premier Wen Jiabao read a two-hour report on the work of the government to three thousand deputies of the Chinese parliament, in which he called for focusing efforts on “building a new socialist village.” The urban-rural divide has become a widening gap between rich and poor in modern China.