A summit of the leaders of Germany, Poland and France, called the “Weimar Triangle”, scheduled for yesterday morning, was canceled literally at the last minute. The night before, a federal government spokesman said Polish President Lech Kaczynski had fallen ill.

Bank deposits flow into mutual funds The popularity of collective investments among Russians continues to grow, despite the stock market cataclysms. This is evidenced by a study published yesterday by the National League of Managers. Thus, in the first quarter of this year, the influx of shareholders into funds of all categories amounted to more than 85 thousand, or 64.3%.

Residents of special economic zones will not pay to the regions Yesterday a solemn ceremony of signing agreements on the creation of special economic zones (SEZ) took place. “We are participating in the legal birth of the zones,” said Economic Development Minister German Gref, shaking hands in turn with the six heads of regions that won the competition. The head of the Federal Agency for SEZ Management, Yuri Zhdanov, put it much more colorfully.

RUSAL, the largest company in Russia and the third largest company in the world in terms of primary aluminum production, announced some indicators of its financial performance for the past year. The company's revenue amounted to $6.65 billion (22.33% more than a year earlier), the company's equity capital, as stated in the report, at the end of 2005 also increased by 22% and amounted to $3.482 billion.

Today in Moscow there will be a meeting of the working group on the preparation of the G8 summit with the participation of representatives of the G8 countries. It is expected that Russia's proposals on the work agenda will be presented to the partners in a detailed form during the year. How many hopes were and are placed on the upcoming G8 summit in St. Petersburg this summer - the first summit to be held under the chairmanship of Russia!

Even if they are relatives of Saddam Hussein Jordan yesterday refused to grant Iraq's request for the extradition of Raghad Hussein al-Tikriti, Saddam Hussein's eldest daughter. Jordanian Prime Minister Maarouf al-Bakhit said she was "a guest of the royal family and is under its protection in accordance with Arab tradition as an asylum seeker." The prime minister clarified that Ms.

In one day, eight people suffered at the hands of nationalists in Moscow On Saturday, the capital's nationalists carried out a full-fledged raid in the city against “non-Russians.” As it turned out yesterday, in just one day in different areas, groups of shaven-headed thugs staged several attacks, as a result of which at least eight people from Armenia, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan were injured. The main events took place in the capital's subway.

Today, Foreign Minister Tzipi LIVNI returns to Israel after negotiations with President Vladimir Putin, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and Security Council Secretary Igor Ivanov. Yesterday she told Vremya Novostey columnist Elena SUPONINA and the INTERFAX agency about how the meetings went in Moscow. — The negotiations in Moscow were very good, simply excellent. We discussed both the current situation and the future of the Middle East.

The head of the traffic police wants to replace inspectors with automation Anniversary celebrations on the occasion of the 70th anniversary of the Russian State Traffic Inspectorate led its current head, Viktor Kiryanov (pictured) , to the idea that in order to ensure discipline and safety on the road, it would be good to “minimize the human factor.” Yesterday at a festive press conference, he admitted that the most impartial guard, as well as an examiner for new drivers, could only be

New verdict handed down in Aeroflot case The Savelovsky Court of Moscow yesterday handed down a new verdict in the scandalous Aeroflot case. By a court decision, former first deputy general director of the airline Nikolai Glushkov, chief accountant Lidiya Kryzhevskaya and ex-head of Financial United Corporation (FOK) CJSC Roman Sheinin were found guilty of stealing more than 214 million rubles from Aeroflot.

Two candidates consider themselves presidents Mexico's presidential elections on Sunday ended in stalemate. According to preliminary data, right-wing representative Felipe Calderon, 43, a candidate from the ruling conservative National Action Party (PAN) and former energy minister, is coming out on top.

The Hague Tribunal took pity on the Bosnian “hero” Yesterday, Serbian Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica called the Hague Tribunal's verdict against former Bosnian Muslim commander Nasser Oric "an open mockery of justice and an outrage against innocent victims." Serbian President Boris Tadic compared the verdict to that of a petty shoplifter. Naser Oric, 39, was sentenced to two years in prison on Friday, although the prosecution had hoped to put him behind bars for 18 years.

A medical tomograph protected Domodedovo New equipment for automatically searching for explosive devices in passengers' luggage was presented yesterday by the Moscow representative office of the Israeli airline EL AL. A CTX 5500 DS tomograph designed for this purpose, manufactured by the American corporation General Electric (GE), is mounted in the departure area of ​​Domodedovo Airport, serving EL AL Moscow-Tel Aviv flights.

Moldova buys gas for $160 Negotiations between Gazprom and the Moldovan government on the transfer of assets in exchange for a preferential supply price were unsuccessful. As First Deputy Prime Minister of Moldova Zinaida Grechanaya told TASS yesterday, at the end of last week a contract was signed according to which in the second half of the year Gazprom will sell gas to the republic at $160 per thousand cubic meters. This is $50 more than the price in effect from January to July.

The US Congress was asked to abandon change The American cent in the future risks remaining only in the collections of numismatists. One-cent coins, commonly called “pennies,” it turns out, are no longer worth their cost, writes the AP agency. The US Mint, which produces coinage, recently stated that it already costs 1.2 cents to produce each penny. This sad result was caused by the rise in price of the metal used in coin alloys.