Yesterday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov visited Ethiopia, where he held talks with Prime Minister Meles Zenawi, his counterpart Seyoum Mesfin, Chairman of the African Union (AU) Commission Alpha Oumar Konare and the head of the UN mission in Ethiopia and Eritrea Azuz Ennifar. The focus was on UN Security Council Resolution No. 1706 on Sudan, adopted on August 31.

Canada's attitude towards the US and Russia may change Today, early parliamentary elections are being held in Canada. For the first time in 13 years, conservatives may come to power. The struggle is mainly between two parties - the Liberal and Conservative. The third most important New Democratic Socialist Party only hopes to increase its representation at the expense of the liberals. In the French-speaking province of Quebec, the separatist Quebec Bloc will probably perform better than others.

Ramzan Kadyrov called on the Russian leadership to fight xenophobia The Chechen authorities reacted sharply to the events in Kondopoga and are ready to take an active part in resolving the situation. The President of the Republic, Alu Alkhanov, said that forced displacement of nations is unacceptable, be it Chechens, Jews, Tatars or representatives of any other ethnic groups. Especially if this happens in connection with the work of “criminal structures”.

Israeli corporal Gilad Shalit, captured by Palestinian militants on June 25, could be released within 48 hours. The Qatari newspaper Al-Sharq reported this yesterday. According to the publication, in exchange, Israel will release 1,400 Palestinian prisoners from prison, cease hostilities in the territory of the Palestinian Authority and return previously frozen financial resources to it.

They are trying to subordinate the Kaliningrad Public Chamber to the regional administration In the westernmost Russian region, the new political season begins with a scandal. It is possible that in the near future the regional Public Chamber will be “shake up”, making it part of the power vertical. The newspaper Vremya Novostei already wrote about this scenario this spring.

President Alkhanov does not like the name of his republic The President of the Chechen Republic Alu Alkhanov, who was in St. Petersburg at a meeting of the Russian-Arab Business Council, unexpectedly proposed renaming his region. In his opinion, the name Chechnya, “which has been assigned to the republic in recent years,” sounds somewhat dissonant, contains a negative connotation, is perceived negatively and has no legal basis. “I have always said that the name of the Chechens is Nokhchi.

On the last day of summer, NASA announced the winners of the tender for the construction of new spacecraft, which in the future should replace the current shuttles. Atlantis and Discovery will replace the Orions, which will be created by the Lockheed Martin corporation. The company won a competition from the Boeing-Northrop-Grumman alliance and will receive billions of dollars from NASA to build a fleet of new reusable spacecraft.

Now Yekaterinburg residents will have to build it again A new modern bridge collapsed in Yekaterinburg shortly before completion of construction. Yesterday, an Oka car crashed into a support of a bridge being built at the intersection of Vostochnaya and Shevchenko streets. Immediately after this, the collapse of the spans began. According to the latest data, three spans collapsed. A crane standing on the bridge fell along with them. No one was injured as a result of the incident.

American Alcoa is exploring the Far East The Russian Far East turned out to be of interest not only to domestic aluminum producers (primarily RUSAL and SUAL), who plan to build factories there and are now looking for sites. The Khabarovsk Territory attracts them with its proximity to one of the promising markets - China, and also has an important advantage over other regions - access to the sea and satisfactory river navigation along the Amur.

On Wednesday in Kyiv, Russia and Ukraine will continue negotiations on gas. The problem of gas supplies will also become the main one at the negotiations of Ukrainian Prime Minister Yuri Yekhanurov in Moscow, where he will arrive in mid-February. At the same time, Ukrainians are actively looking for ways to get rid of their dependence on Russian gas. Vladimir SHANDRA, Minister of Industrial Policy of Ukraine, tells Vremya Novostey about this.

Perhaps, besides Moscow, there is hardly another capital in which the territory of art depends not on public consciousness, but solely on the whim of the authorities.

The Vremya Novostey newspaper decided to find out from politicians and political scientists what, in their opinion, is the cause of the mass unrest in Kondopoga, whether the situation with interethnic relations in Russia is getting out of the control of the authorities and what should be done to prevent the replication of such excesses .

The Salzburg Festival shone with performers, but not with performances Salzburg was and remains a special, magical place: this tiny baroque city with marvelous streets, passages and squares, sandwiched between the muddy Salzach stream and the cliffs, can be walked around in three to four hours. But in the summer months, sometimes even two weeks are not enough to realize all the fresh ideas that musicians and theater people live here.

Tom Wolfe. I'm Charlotte Simmons. Translation from English V. Pravosudova. Amphora, 2006. The novel, which became a reference book for American youth in the mid-2000s, was written by the founder of the so-called “new journalism” Tom Wolfe in 2004. Thirty-six years have passed since the publication of The Electric Cooling Acid Test, which brought him fame as the main literary informal in America.

CLUBS Barbez (New York). A group consisting of descendants of Russian emigrants, a wild cocktail of instruments and styles. Barbez is often compared to another New York group, also from Eastern Europe, the group Gogol Bordello. Barbez plays, among other things, marimba, theremin and clarinet. The music is a mixture of French, Argentine and Eastern European folk with crazy and in a good way “raw” punk.