In Sweden, the minister paid for the persecution of cartoonists Swedish Foreign Minister Laila Freivalds ( pictured ) submitted her resignation yesterday. Prime Minister and leader of the Swedish Social Democrats, Göran Persson, immediately granted the request. Deputy Prime Minister Bosse Ringholm will act as head of the Swedish Foreign Ministry.

Why Belarusians voted for Alexander Lukashenko again No one doubted that Alexander Lukashenko would win the elections in Belarus. However, the events of the last weeks of the election campaign gave it some dynamism, and several key issues came up on the agenda.

What happened and is happening in Kosovo, which is formally still considered part of Serbia, is in fact much more important and serious than it might seem at first glance. Let's not even talk about double standards and hypocrisy. Burning Orthodox churches and monasteries caused much less concern among the European public than the scandals with several cartoons published in the Danish provincial press.

Europe's elite clubs begin to play in court Has there been a scandal in world football for a long time? Have you heard about the G-14 group for a long time? Has it been a long time since anyone challenged FIFA? And then it happened. The World Football Authority is being sued for exploiting the labor of football players. No more, no less.

The North Atlantic cyclone will not leave the northern half of European Russia in the next two days. Because of it, there is light snow in places in the northwestern regions, cold at night: -8...-13°C, and cool during the day: -1...-7°C. In the center of Russia, the temperature in the morning will drop to -9...-14°C, and on Wednesday afternoon it will be 0...-5°C, on Thursday +2...-3°C.

Two people were killed and one was wounded as a result of a riot caused by a resident of the working-class village of Privokzalny (Sverdlovsk region). According to the prosecutor's office, on Monday at about 8 o'clock in the evening, a local 23-year-old unemployed man was walking along Tsentralnaya Street with an unregistered hunting rifle in his hands and, for no apparent reason, shot a 41-year-old woman he met in the face. He then entered the store, where he shot a customer in the back.

Liv Gret Poiret announced her retirement Tomorrow the final, ninth stage of the Biathlon World Cup begins in Holmenkollen. On the eve of this event, the owner of the track, the famous shooting skier Liv Gret Poiret, announced that she was going to end her career. Thus, for the 31-year-old Norwegian, the upcoming races will be the last official starts in her sports career.

Russia is pushing Europe to compete with China for gas Vladimir Putin began his official visit to China with the “explosion” of an information bomb on the gas topic. It was the head of state who announced the contents of the protocol signed yesterday in Beijing on the parameters of gas supplies between Gazprom and CNPC. According to the president, Russian gas supplies to China in the foreseeable future will amount to 60-80 billion cubic meters of gas per year.

A representative of the old elite became the speaker of the Nizhny Novgorod parliament Yesterday the first meeting of the new legislative assembly of the Nizhny Novgorod region took place. As expected, the leader of the Nizhny Novgorod regional branch of the United Russia party, Evgeny Lyulin, became the chairman of the regional parliament.

Nord-Ost hostages passed all Russian authorities Spectators of the musical “Nord-Ost” who suffered from terrorists failed to achieve changes in the principles of compensation for moral damage in Russia through the Constitutional Court. The court did not even begin to consider in detail the complaint of the victims’ lawyer Igor Trunov, who challenged the provision of Article 17 of the Law “On the Fight against Terrorism” in the highest court.

James Conlon shot Britten's War Requiem The works of Benjamin Britten, who stands outside the main trends of music of the 20th century, fit more and more firmly into the standard repertoire of world concert life. But for Moscow, the War Requiem (perhaps the most direct opus of the great English composer in its appeal to humanity) is still a rarity.

Dynamo player Domani upset Hapoel fans In the first match of the semifinals of the ULEB Cup, the capital's Dynamo team won away from Hapoel Jerusalem - 84:83. The victory for the “blue and white” in Israel was brought by Dmitry Domani, who converted in 2.5 seconds. before the end of the match one of two free throws. If he had missed both times, it would have been a draw. An equal score in basketball matches is allowed only in confrontations consisting of two meetings.

Iraqi civilians were shot in retaliation for the bombing Investigators from the US military prosecutor's office arrived in Iraq to investigate a tragedy that casts a bloody shadow over the actions of American troops. It is believed that at least fifteen Iraqi civilians became victims of deliberate actions by the Americans last November. According to the BBC, this happened in the city of El Haditha, located 200 km northwest of Baghdad.

The international community (more precisely, the United States and the European Union) decided to make the year 2006 the date for the final determination of the status of the region of Kosovo, putting an end to the last chapter of the “Yugoslav crisis.” The haste is difficult to explain if we take seriously for a moment the declared goal - to create a democratic multi-ethnic society in Kosovo.

32-year-old Russian Lidiya Grigorieva won the prestigious Los Angeles Marathon, earning a total of $135 thousand. She finished with a course record of 2 hours 25 minutes. 10 sec. In addition to winning the women's competition, for which the Russian woman received 35 thousand, she also achieved success in the so-called “battle of the sexes”, hitting the “jackpot” - a check for 100 thousand dollars.