The Duma will give the president the right to remove governors for any crimes Last Friday, the State Duma approved in the first reading amendments to the Criminal and Criminal Procedure Codes of Russia, allowing the president to remove governors from office on the recommendation of the prosecutor’s office not only for serious and especially serious crimes, as was the case before, but for any crimes in general. The document was submitted to the House by the Russian government.

Scientists were promised a huge bonus for defeating greenhouse gases The anomalous winter of 2007, with its high temperatures and almost summer-like storms, could bring scientists not only new material for research, but also additional funding. Climate surprises seem to have fed up eccentric British billionaire Richard Branson so much that he has decided to personally incentivize a researcher who promises to reduce the impact of greenhouse gases on the Earth's atmosphere. Last Friday, Mr.

Kenyan's son is on the warpath for the White House Today, Democratic Senator from Illinois Barack Obama ( pictured ) will give a speech at the University of New Hampshire, in which he will outline his program for the fight for the US presidency. Obama, a 45-year-old African-American, entered the election campaign last Saturday. Obama's main rival among Democrats is 59-year-old Senator Hillary Clinton.

The first elections in 16 years were held in Turkmenistan Yesterday, Turkmenistan elected a president for the first time in this century. This has happened in this country only once - in 1991. Then Saparmurat Niyazov became the head of state, who later received the name Turkmenbashi the Great and died suddenly on December 21, 2006 . Yesterday's elections were a great holiday for Turkmen voters.

Recently, at an international conference in Munich, President Viktor Yushchenko said that in Ukraine “a political consensus has been reached on strategic development goals.” The head of the Party of Regions faction, coordinator of the ruling Anti-Crisis Coalition in the Rada, Raisa BOGATYREVA, spoke to Vremya Novostey about the foreign policy course of Ukraine and the prospects for relations with Russia.

Clint Eastwood's new film at the Berlin Film Festival Yesterday the European premiere of Clint Eastwood's Letters from Iwo Jima took place in Berlin. Since its release (the film was first released in Japan and became the box office leader there), Eastwood managed to receive a Golden Globe for best non-English language film. The film was nominated for an Oscar in four categories and received numerous critical acclaim.

January 9 -- February 9, 2007 “Politicians Through the Eyes of the Media,” a joint project of Vremya Novostei and the Medialogia company, are ratings of the political figures most actively discussed in the Russian media.

Khimki waited four years for victory over CSKA The strongest club in Europe, CSKA, suffered its second defeat in the Super League. The failure of the army team in the away match with Khimki (74:75) is considered super sensational, despite the fact that such an outcome in the match between the current champion and the silver medalist should not be surprising. However, the result of this game looks like a big surprise if you look at the history of the previous relationships between the rivals.

The Social Insurance Fund is preparing to pay benefits to unemployed mothers The flood of information that bombarded Russian women last year about increasing maternity and child care benefits seems to have completely disoriented women. In January, when numerous amendments regarding changes in the system of material support for mothers came into force, the Social Insurance Fund noted a decrease in the number of applications .

The Boris Eifman Theater is thirty years old The Boris Eifman Theater celebrated its anniversary last Saturday not in its native St. Petersburg, but in the capital, on the stage of the Stanislavsky and Nemirovich-Danchenko Musical Theater.

Vladimir Putin called on the West to answer in Munich German Chancellor Angela Merkel has the right to feel special satisfaction: Vladimir Putin, who spoke at her invitation on February 10 in Munich at the 43rd Security Conference, turned this event into an event of truly international proportions. The editor-in-chief of the Swiss newspaper Tan drew attention to this circumstance during the Russian president’s speech.

The energy conflict between Russia and Belarus has radically changed the seemingly relatively reliable system of relations between the “allied states.” The foreign policy rhetoric of Minsk changed to the diametrically opposite one, and Russia received yet another proof of the unreliability of the Lukashenko regime as a partner and the difficulty of interaction with transit countries (not only Belarus, but also Ukraine and Poland).

Chronicle of sporting events Hockey. NHL. Regular season . "Dallas" -- "Anaheim" -- 1:0 - - Zubov "D" (0+1), "Washington" -- "Rangers" -- 2:5 - - Ovechkin "B" (1+0), Semin "V" (0+1), "Montreal" -- "Ottawa" -- 3:5 -- Markov "M" (1+0), "Buffalo" -- "Calgary" -- 3:2 (B ) - - Kalinin "B" (0+1), "Philadelphia" -- "St. Louis" -- 4:3 (OT) -- Zhitnik "F" (0+1), "Toronto" -- "Pittsburgh" " -- 5:6 (OT) - - Malkin "P" (1+3), Gonchar "P" (0+2), "Boston" -- "Islanders" -- 4:3 (B) -- Vic .

Russians lacked skiing skills at the World Championships The Biathlon World Championships ended yesterday in the Italian town of Anterselva. The main hero of the tournament was 19-year-old German Magdalena Neuner, who won three gold medals (sprint, pursuit, relay). Our men's team has a relay “gold” and “silver” for Maxim Chudov in pursit.

The United States has accused Iran's top leadership of secretly supplying Iraqi rebels with advanced high-explosive devices. As a result of their use, more than 170 American military personnel have allegedly died since June 2004. Senior representatives of the US command, on condition of anonymity, told reporters in Baghdad yesterday that Iranian land mines can even hit American Abrams tanks (the thickness of the armor protection in different places on the bottom is from 20 to 60 mm).