The interfluve of the Tigris and Euphrates is turning into a “historical” quagmire In December of this year, the Iraqi authorities announced that thanks to the joint efforts of international organizations and the country's government, almost half of the famous Mesopotamian swamps had been restored.

BASKETBALL. December 19. ULEB Cup (men). 8th round . December 20-21. Euroleague ULEB (men). 9th round . December 22. "Match of Stars" of Russian basketball. Saint Petersburg. In the Euroleague ULEB CSKA and the Spanish Barcelona continue to share the lead in Group C - seven wins each and one defeat. Last week, the army team easily defeated Napoli (Italy), whose players took a ride in the capital's metro, and the blue garnets defeated Pau-Orthez (France) late on Thursday at home.

Russian skiers performed superbly at the World Cup stage in the French town of La Clusaz. Yesterday, for the first time in many years, our men's team won the 4x10 km relay, with Vasily Rochev, Nikolai Pankratov, Alexander Legkov and Evgeniy Dementyev ahead of the Norwegians who finished second by 1 minute. 25 sec. German skiers received bronze.

Today in Poland they are watching the outcome of the scandal caused by 57-year-old President Lech Kaczynski (pictured) .

Putin gave Bakiyev a plane In a few months, an expensive gift from Russia - a Tu-154 aircraft - will be delivered to Kyrgyzstan. This became known on December 15 in Bishkek during a meeting of the Russian-Kyrgyz Intergovernmental Commission (IPC).

Alexander Lukashenko is not afraid of winter in relations with Russia Vladimir Putin and Alexander Lukashenko have recently begun to regularly hold multi-hour negotiations . However, the “allies” still cannot resolve pressing issues of economic interaction. The regular meeting of the State Council of the union state of Russia and Belarus, held last Friday, was no exception: a three-hour conversation in a narrow format ended with formal words about the emerging progress in the negotiations.

They want to create an underwater casino in the Kaliningrad gambling zone The gambling zone , which the State Duma agreed to place on the territory of the westernmost region of Russia, will attract wealthy tourists to the region. Regional Minister of Industry and Tourism Nikolai Vlasenko told Vremya Novostey about this. He himself is not a poor man (a ruble billionaire, co-owner of a chain of shopping centers in Kaliningrad, Moscow and St.

The Central Bank wants to know why Russians pay off their mortgages early The Central Bank decided to find out how often Russians repay their mortgage loans ahead of schedule. For this purpose, the regulator issued a special instruction “On conducting a one-time survey of early repayment of mortgage housing loans,” according to which Russian banks are required to provide data on such operations by April 25, 2007.

The new super arena turned out to be happy for the Russians The Russian national team under the leadership of Vyacheslav Bykov at the third stage of the Channel One Cup Eurotour in Moscow on the ice of the new Moscow arena near Khodynsky Field did not lose a single match in regular time and allowed only one goal into their own goal. But even with such an excellent result from the hosts, the fate of the main prize was not known until the last match between Sweden and Finland.

The restoration of Spartak Moscow to the Russian Super League from the 2007-2008 season is important not only from the point of view of fairness to one of the greatest domestic clubs. According to the regulations, this decision could not be made except with the consent of all Super League teams.

A unique military fighter has been put into service Today is exactly 13 years since the first flight of the Su-34 fighter. Work on its creation began with a decree of the USSR government in June 1986. In 1995, the car was demonstrated at the Le Bourget air show as the Su-32FN.

The existential drama by French director Bruno Dumont “Flanders” is released in Moscow with a negligible number of screens. Even the ultra-prestigious Grand Prix of the Cannes Film Festival did not help Dumont’s film reach our cinemas, and therefore meet those who need this meeting. It turns out that in the absence of serious art distribution, “Flanders” should be happy with the crumbs.

Krasnomorkanal can save the saltiest lake on the planet Israel is seriously considering the idea of ​​building a canal from the Red Sea to the Dead Sea. It could save the famous salt pond from drying out completely. However, skeptics believe that ocean waters will kill the unique lake and turn the tourist pearl of the Middle East into a large pond with ordinary sea water. Now experts agree that if everything is left as is, then the Dead Sea has only half a century left to live.

Yesterday, the results of the All-Crimean referendum on Ukraine's accession to NATO, which was held by the communists on December 16, became known.

In St. Petersburg, Russian figure skaters won only one bronze medal The Russians won only one medal in the Grand Prix finals in figure skating, which ended in St. Petersburg. Oksana Domnina and Maxim Shabalin became bronze medalists in the dancer competition.