Russia Day will be celebrated with a festival of symphony orchestras At the beginning of summer, the capital will not expect the usual calm and emptiness of concert posters, but a rather representative festival of symphony orchestras of the world, initiated by the Presidential Council for Culture - the organizers of the future forum told reporters about this at a press conference held on Tuesday.

The Japanese concern is going to build four car factories The automobile concern Honda Motor yesterday unveiled a development plan for the coming years, which includes active expansion in the North American market and expansion of production at home, in Japan. A total of four plants will be built with a total cost of $1.2 billion - two in Japan, one in the USA and an engine production plant in Canada, the BBC reports.

The leader of Italy's centre-left coalition, Romano Prodi, 66, swore in a new government yesterday, saying he had "a great desire to achieve cohesion and unity in the country." The current cabinet is the 61st in the post-war history of Italy. In other words, Italian governments after 1945, on average, replaced each other with apothecary precision - exactly once a year. This government was not born easily.

CLUBS Festival "Alternative". On the second day of the 20th anniversary “Alternative”, Rainer van Houdt, who has already come to the festival twice, will perform - a pianist who promotes rarely performed music, including authors who are outside the academic mainstream.

The EU did not allow European police into Minsk Most European countries, following instructions from Brussels, did not send their representatives to the Interpol regional conference, which opened yesterday in Minsk. Thus, the EU once again reminded Belarusians of its dissatisfaction with the way they elected the president in March. As a result, police officers from European CIS countries, Bulgaria, Serbia and Montenegro, Turkey, Norway and Iceland arrived in Minsk.

The Israeli Foreign Ministry is removing photographs and information about employees of the country's diplomatic missions from public access on the Internet after the international terrorist organization Al-Qaeda published online photographs of its enemies, including three Israeli diplomats working in a Middle Eastern country. There were also photos of diplomats from the USA, Great Britain and Australia.

The opposition Party of Regions said it has its own version of an agreement to create a ruling parliamentary coalition. This document has been “worked out with other parties,” Viktor Yanukovych said yesterday in Kyiv. But the leader of the “regions” refused to name these parties, citing the “confidential nature” of the “complex negotiation process.” Only the radical Yulia Tymoshenko clearly spoke out against a coalition with the Party of Regions.

International Ballet Festival took place in Berlin The official name of these two weeks, which at the end of the season gathers dance lovers from all over the world in the capital of Germany, is International Dance Summit Berlin 2006.

Yesterday the playoffs began at the World Championships in Riga. In the first quarter-final, Canada met Slovakia. The victory went to the European team - 6:0. Our team will play the most important match in this tournament today against the Czech Republic.

The Federal Law on the General Principles of Organizing Local Self-Government in the Krasnoyarsk Territory came into full force on January 1, 2006. The region had its own model of local self-government even before the adoption of the law - in particular, to comply with the new legislation it was necessary to create only five new municipalities.

Hostages' testimony was read at the verdict in the Beslan terrorist attack case Yesterday, the Supreme Court of North Ossetia continued to announce the verdict in the case of Nurpashi Kulaev, a militant who participated in the seizure of a school in Beslan on September 1, 2004. He faces life imprisonment. Yesterday it turned out that the judge himself, Tamerlan Aguzarov, is terminally ill - he has blood cancer. Despite doctors' orders and poor health, he reads the verdict while standing.

Cold Arctic air entered the European territory of Russia in the rear of the cyclone leaving to the east. On Wednesday night, frosts down to -1°C were observed in the Kostroma and Tver, Moscow and Penza regions. Next night there will be frosts in the northern (up to -7°C), northwestern (up to -4°C) and central (up to -3°C) regions. In the center of Russia in the next 24 hours the weather will be determined by an anticyclone.

First Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs blown up in Ingushetia “He was one of the few who really and recklessly opposed terrorism,” senator from the republic Issa Kostoev said about the deceased Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs of Ingushetia Dzhabrail Kostoev.

The promising A350 is behind the times European aircraft manufacturer Airbus may have to restart the design of its mid-size long-haul aircraft, the A350. This was stated at the ILA-2006 international air show currently taking place in Berlin, Noel Forgard, the head of EADS, which owns 80% of Airbus shares. According to the previously approved work schedule for the A350, commercial deliveries of this aircraft were to begin in 2010. Aeroflot may become one of the buyers of this airliner.

The Duma prohibited deputies from changing their party affiliation The State Duma yesterday approved in the first reading a law obliging deputies to be members only of the political party on whose list they were elected. 360 deputies voted in favor. The factions of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation, Rodina (Narodnaya Volya - SEPR), as well as a number of independent deputies, opposed it. A free vote was announced in the Rodina faction.