The traffic police continues to seek tougher penalties for drivers The World Road Safety Partnership (WRPSP) summit, held yesterday in Moscow, demonstrated that Russian and Western experts have different views on how to combat high road deaths.

The government of Kabardino-Balkaria is headed by Andrey Yarin The Parliament of Kabardino-Balkaria yesterday overwhelmingly approved 36-year-old Andrei Yarin as Prime Minister of the republic. Mr. Yarin will replace Gennady Gubin, who headed the cabinet for the last two years and resigned a few days ago. Commenting on his departure, Mr. Gubin said that it was time to give way to younger and more energetic managers.

The Federal Service for Financial Markets decided to hurry up with the creation of a special compensation fund for shareholders. Speaking yesterday at the conference “Financial Market Forecasts,” Deputy Head of the Federal Financial Markets Service Sergei Kharlamov announced that by the end of the year a bill could be ready that would provide for the payment of compensation to private citizens who have invested their funds in mutual funds.

Jerusalem may turn into Sderot Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert named the first Jewish settlements to be evacuated from the West Bank as part of the second stage of unilateral disengagement with the Palestinians. There are four of them - Shiloh, Beit El, Ofra and Kedumim. They are surrounded by Palestinian territories and do not touch the “Green Line”, that is, the border of Israel before the start of the 1967 war with the Arabs.

The Ghana national team made the Czechs the third wheel The knockout matches at the World Cup began even before the start of the playoffs. After the third round, one of the three teams in Group E, which undoubtedly deserved a place in the 1/8 finals, had to leave the tournament. The Czech team was unlucky. Karel Brückner's team lost to the Italians - 0:2 and said goodbye to the World Cup: the teams of Ghana and Italy are next.

British Airways (BA) has once again come under investigation by regulators. It is accused of artificially inflating prices - since May 2004, BA has introduced additional fees for tickets seven times in response to surges in fuel prices. The company said yesterday that the UK Trade Compliance Authority and the US Department of Justice were investigating the possibility of price fixing that may have involved British Airways and other unnamed companies.

The USA played a tragic role in the events of 1956 Yesterday, US President George W. Bush, who arrived on an official visit to Hungary, recalled the events of 1956. He laid flowers at a black granite monument on Budapest's Kossuth Square dedicated to the victims of the suppression of the anti-communist uprising by Soviet troops. It is believed that about 2.6 thousand Hungarians and about 600 Soviet soldiers and officers died then.

The Orange took power. The Yulia Tymoshenko Bloc received the most tasty morsels Yesterday in Ukraine they officially announced the creation of a parliamentary coalition consisting of three “orange” forces - the Socialist Party, the Yulia Tymoshenko Bloc (BYuT) and the presidential bloc “Our Ukraine”. The coalition agreement was signed by 239 deputies from three parties with the required minimum of 226 votes.

Ancient Greek deities of the underworld continue to emigrate into space The International Astronomical Union has assigned official names to two recently discovered moons of Pluto. Now Nix and Hydra are orbiting at a distance of 44 thousand km from the ninth planet. The first satellite was given the name of the ancient Greek goddess of the night, the second was named in honor of the nine-headed mythological monster that guarded the underground kingdom of Hades (Pluto).

The Russian gas monopolist yesterday announced a deal that brings it closer to its goal of selling raw materials to end consumers in the British market. Gazprom's wholly owned English "granddaughter" - Gazprom Marketing and Trading (GM&T) - acquired part of the retail business of Pennine Natural Gas Ltd. As stated in the official statement of the concern, work will soon begin with Pennine Natural Gas Limited to transfer a portfolio of about 600 clients to Gazprom Marketing and Trading accounts.

CSTO and EurAsEC summits will protect Minsk from rising gas prices Today, President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko will become chairman of the CIS Collective Security Council. This post at the CIS Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) summit in Minsk will be handed over to him on a rotating basis by the President of Russia, the country where the previous CSTO summit was held. The Belarusian capital will also host a summit meeting of the Eurasian Economic Community (EurAsEC).

The government has given the go-ahead for full settlement with the Paris Club Yesterday it became finally clear that already in August Russia will fully pay off the debt of the former USSR to the Paris Club of creditors (the volume of debt at the beginning of last year was more than $40 billion). Moreover, he will pay ahead of schedule and, as experts admit, on the most favorable terms possible.

Mittal Steel did not follow the example of Severstal head Alexei Mordashov and has not yet announced improved conditions or an increase in the offer to purchase Arcelor shares. At the same time, an unnamed senior representative of Mittal Steel said that the company “is not considering options” for increasing the size of the payment for control over Arcelor and “doubts the sincerity of Arcelor management, which claims that it wants to negotiate with it,” ITAR-TASS reports.

Experts do not believe in the possibility of a serious fight against corruption After the president declared war on corruption in his annual address to the Federal Assembly, a wave of layoffs swept through ministries and departments. However, statesmen did not limit themselves to banal purges, but actively began developing various concepts to combat this undoubted evil. A variety of measures are proposed.

The opening film of the XXVIII Moscow Film Festival was “The Oath” - a large-scale historical fantasy based on Chinese myths, the latest work of one of the most famous and respected Chinese directors, Chen Kaige (the film is released in Russia on June 29). Chen Kaige was born in 1952 into a film family and was one of the first graduates of the Beijing Film School after the Cultural Revolution. Almost none of the director’s films have been overlooked at international film festivals.