Olmert and Abbas met in Jerusalem Yesterday evening in Jerusalem there was a meeting between Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and the head of the Palestinian National Authority, Mahmoud Abbas (Abu Mazen). This was their third meeting in the last four months, this time the negotiations took place face to face. Olmert and Abbas communicated on February 19 and December 23 through the mediation of US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice .

The Moscow City Duma advises colleagues to amend the law on media The capital's deputies decided to remove any national connotation from the criminal columns of the Russian media .

The first international conference on security in Iraq, organized by the government of this country, was held, according to the Russian Ambassador in Baghdad Vladimir Chamov, “in an oriental way, softly, kindly, and hospitably.” On Saturday, ambassadors of countries that are permanent members of the UN Security Council in Iraq, deputy heads of foreign ministries of neighboring states, delegates from the League of Arab States and the Organization of the Islamic Conference gathered in Baghdad.

"Golden Mask" will open very soon The official opening of the Golden Mask will take place on March 28, but the touring schedule of musical theaters, as always, makes adjustments to the festival schedule. The Mariinsky Theater has already shown its performances - both opera and ballet; next Monday the Novosibirsk ballet will appear in the capital. At a press conference held before the weekend, the management of the Golden Mask decided to talk in detail about this year’s festival.

The premium for the right to be the largest shareholder of OGK-3 amounted to 26-27% of the market price of shares During the placement, a large block of shares in Wholesale Generating Company No. 3 (OGK-3) will go to Norilsk Nickel, which now owns 13.92% of the shares of this company. Alexander Chikunov, member of the board of RAO UES of Russia and chairman of the board of directors of OGK-3, announced this last Saturday.

The President ordered to clear the Russian budget of oil and gas Russia, it seems, is facing another budget revolution. The country is just moving to a three-year budget , and the president, in his Budget Address, released last Friday, actually accepted new proposals from Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin on radical reform of the budget sector. Already in 2008, the transition to budget formation taking into account the non-oil and gas balance will begin .

Member of the All-China Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPCC) Li Jingze, at the annual session of the CPPCC in Beijing, made a proposal to publish an all-China newspaper in Russian. Li Jingze is a research fellow at the Institute of Eastern Europe and Central Asia of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. In his opinion, China should have an influential newspaper in Russian - such as the all-China newspaper in English, China Daily.

All regional elections took place Yesterday, elections to legislative assemblies were held in 14 regions of Russia (Dagestan, the Komi Republic, Stavropol Territory, Vologda, Leningrad, Moscow, Murmansk, Omsk , Oryol, Pskov, Samara , Tomsk and Tyumen regions, as well as in St. Petersburg). Only four of them still have a minimum turnout threshold - Dagestan, the Komi Republic, Vologda and Moscow regions.

The new head of Roszdravnadzor has already worked with the director of the Federal Compulsory Medical Insurance Fund The debate that continued throughout last week about who will take the post of head of the Federal Service for Surveillance in Healthcare and Social Development (Roszdravnadzor), which was vacated last Monday, was resolved yesterday quite innocently.

Sberbank shareholders did not refuse to buy back shares from the additional issue The collapse in the stock market, which coincided with the payment of applications for Sberbank shares , did not prevent him from raising capital. President and Chairman of the Board of the Bank Andrei Kazmin reported last week that during the placement by preemptive right, Sberbank shareholders paid 99% of applications for 146.3 billion rubles.

The current regional elections , like the upcoming Duma elections in December 2007, are important not so much for you and me, ordinary voters, but for leaders at all levels. When power is built vertically and stands at attention, but the Boss is expected to leave, and the struggle of pro-Kremlin groups does not weaken at all, the bosses inevitably have to place their bets. Decide who to swear allegiance to in order to survive the upcoming redistribution of this “vertical” power.

Last Thursday, the American Atlas 5 launch vehicle launched several satellites into orbit, among which a very unusual project called Orbital Express stands out. This is a system of two devices, one of which is essentially a repair robot, as well as an orbital tanker. Americans want to learn how to repair their automatic satellites right in space. Until now, repairing faulty devices in orbit from a technical point of view remains an extremely difficult process.

The government liked how Russia gets rid of migrants in markets The government as a whole is pleased with the way it is establishing order in the areas of labor migration and retail trade in markets. This conclusion can be drawn based on the results of the cabinet meeting held last Friday.

Presidents of Venezuela and the United States Hugo Chavez and George W. Bush are currently touring Latin America. Bush has already spoken with the leftist presidents of Brazil and Uruguay and is going to visit the leaders of Colombia, Guatemala and Mexico who are closer to him in spirit.

Netrebko and her colleagues surprised the Moscow elite An opera diva of the newest generation, of the first importance and of the most modern type, as well as the new face of the Chopard company, performed in Moscow in a concert whose genre no one could define. What mysterious uncertainty, coupled with the confusion of those who bought tickets “to the Netrebko concert,” formed the main content of the evening.